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| Dec-20-09 | | lost in space: my initial thought was:
48...Be4, but after
49. Rxe4 d3 50. d2 Kxe2 Black is lost
So what else?
Not easy to decide which move is better: 48...Ba6, Bb5, Bc4 More or less because White can not take the ♗ after Bb5 and because this move is protecting in addition the important e8 square I started the second try with 48...Bb5 49. Kf5 (seems to be the best) d3 50. Kf6 d2 51. g7+ Kg8 52. Rxb5!! and Black is lost. I am now too lazy to check the other moves (Bc4 and Ba6). Or maybe Black has to avoid 50...d2. Time to check to see the solution. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | Eduardo Leon: I saw how black could win with
48...♗b5!
Yeah, this square and not a6. Later we will see why.
49.♔f5 d3 50.♔f6!
Now black must be careful.
50...♗a4!
But not 50...d2?? 51.g7+ ♔g8 52.♖xb5!, and white wins. 51.♖d4
The story doesn't change much if white plays 51.♖c4. 51...e1=Q 52.♖d8+ ♗e8
Unfortunately for me, I thought this puzzle was white to play and wins. (Having seen Nakamura was white, I automatically assumed he was the one supposed to win in this position.) So I went with the average move 48.♔f3. I am an idiot. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | lost in space: ahhh, 50...Ba4!!,
thanks <Jim>!
click for larger view |
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| Dec-20-09 | | Once: A fiendishly clever puzzle, this one!
There is a tempting tactic here. The Bd3 controls both b5 and b1, so we dream of shoving the b pawn up the board. The white rook will not be able to swing across to the b file, because his point of entry is b5 - one of the squares that our bishop controls. What a great bishop! And this is indeed how the game plays out, for a while... 48...a5 (the a pawn is of course perfectly safe because the rook needs to stay to guard against e1=Q). 49. Kf3 a4 50. Kf2 a3 51. ba b3!
And here it is, our fantasy position:
click for larger viewAs predicted, the b pawn is now charging towards the finishing line. Time for the oversized diva to clear her throat, a quick handshake, write "0-1" on the scoresheet and rehearse what we are going to say at the post-game interview... 52. g7+ What's this? White throws away his pride and joy passed pawn? A spite check, nothing more. 52...Kxg7 (52...Kf7 also loses to 53. g8=Q, Kxg8 54. Re8+) 53. Re7+ Kf6 54. Rb7 
click for larger viewOoops. The white rook has swindled its way onto the b file on a square other than b5. Now our wonderful b pawn is halted in its tracks. The black bishop might control b1, but first the pawn has to get past the unprotected b2... What is worse, the white king owns the black squares around the d and e pawns. The Bd3, being a white squared bishop, can never evict the white king from e1 or d2. What a rubbish bishop! Instead of all this, 48...Bb5 guards the e8 square (so no nasty checks from that pesky rook), it steps out of the way to allow d3 and it still allows a5, a4 etc. 48...Bb5 is a great move. Wish I'd seen it. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | goodevans: I think I'm going to give up today. The last two days I've overestimated the position thinking I was going for a win and yesterday it cost me dear (as it did for quite a few folk on Friday). Today I'm pretty sure that I really should be going for a win and I really can't see any clever defence from white to stop me just rushing my a-pawn forward. Certainly 48 ... a5 49 Rxa5 e1=Q 50 Ra8+ gives me no great cause for concern (should it?) as white will soon run out of checks. It's a Sunday so it can't be that simple. Either (i) white has some clever resource against the a and b-pawns or (ii) black has some neat and more convincing way to win or (iii) both. Time to find out which it is. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | goodevans: So it was <(iii) both>. At least I chose the same wrong move as a 2500+ GM. I missed how 49 Kf3 frees up the R to guard the Q-side and I also missed the idea of joining up the central pawns with 48 ... Bb5! at the same time as guarding against any counterplay from Kf5/f6/etc. Not a good weekend for me. Hoping for a Xmas gift next weekend! |
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| Dec-20-09 | | dragonfish1803: I reckon the winning move here is 48..,Be4. This keeps the white king out of f5 for one vital move and prevents it from dashing immediately to f6 when black is in grave danger of being mated. I won't spoon-feed you the variations but clearly 49. Rxe4,d3;50.Kf5,d2;51.Kf6,e1Q is winning for black. Whereas if the bishop is on c4 the white king reaches f6 on move 50 when 51.g7+ wins. Or if the bishop is on b5 51.g7+,Kg1,52.Rxb5 wins. Anybody disagree ? |
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| Dec-20-09 | | pawn to QB4: howsabout 48...Be4 49. Rxe4 d3 50. Kf3 and he's catching the pawns? |
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| Dec-20-09 | | Once: <dragonfish1803>
48...Be4 49. Rxe4 d3 50. Kf3 (why go to f5? The black king isn't going anywhere and all the action is down by e1 and d1). 
click for larger viewNow if 51. d2 Kxe2. Otherwise, the black king marches to e1 via f2 and it's all over. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | johnlspouge: Sunday (Insane):
Nakamura vs I Ibragimov, 2004 (48...?) Black to play and win.
Material: B+2P for R. The White Re5 has the burden of preventing …Pe2-e1=Q and must remain on the e-file. With Pe2, the Black Bd3 and Pd4 form a barrier on the e-file against Kf4. White threatens 49.Kf3 50.Rxe2 51.Kxe2. The White K then captures the Black Pa7 and Pb4, so White wins with the protected passed Pg6. Black can advance his Q-side Ps, because the White R is overburdened. In the following, the White R can check the Black Kf8, but does not gain tempi by doing so. Because of the barrier on the e-file, White must free Re5 to stop the Q-side Ps, while Kf4 stops Pe2. Candidates (48...): a5
I missed the gain of tempo for the R with Pg6-g7, which <Once> so ably described. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | TheaN: 6/7
After looking seriously at 48....Bxg6? 49.hxg6 d3, I noticed 50.Kf3 wins easily so the Bishop must stay on the board. Willing to advance the pawns, it should move from d3 on the f1-a6 diagonal. To be honest, I did see 48....Bb5! was a neat trick as it's immune to capture due to promotion. However, I didn't see the critical difference between Ba6?, Bb5! and Bc4?. The White march would have been nice though. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | sethoflagos: The first move I want to play is 48 ... Bb5. Why? Because I can! (49 Rxb5? e1=Q) Same reason some people give for climbing mountains. May turn out to be equally daft but we'll come back to it. 48 ... a5 is tempting but:
49 Kf3 a4
50 Kf2 a3
51 b3 ... (better than 51 bxa3 b3!)
51 ... a2
52 Ra5 and black loses material
What black doesn't want to play here is
48 ... Bc4 (for example)
49 Kf5 d3
50 Kf6 d2
51 g7+ Kg8
52 Rd8+ Kh7
53 g8=Q#
So let's return to the daft one
48 ... Bb5
49 Kf5 d3
50 Kf6 Ba4 or 51 Rxb5 e1=Q 52 g7+ and mate
51 Re7 e1=Q
52 Rxe1 d2
53 Ra1 d1=Q wins |
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| Dec-20-09 | | 5hrsolver: missed 48...Bb5!!. I forgot there was another counter in the white king advance. If you cant stop them try and promote your own. Having said that, the actual game continuation is also instructive in how Nakamura secures the win. It was not easy. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | remolino: Black to play, 48...?, Insane.
Again one theme for this week: whether to play for a win or a draw. White seems to have dangerous threats on the 8th rank and with a passed pawn on the 6th, but if it was White to play, White does not seem to have an offensive move that is useful: 1. Rook is tied to defense of the promotion threat on the e-file
2. King cannot penetrate up the board without blocking the rook So the kingside and the center seem to be on a standstill. How about the queenside? How about trying to play for a win? It seems that Black has time for: 48...a5!! 49.Kg3 (what else?) ...a4, 50. Kf2 a3, 51. bxa3 b3! Time to check. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | remolino: OK, OK, I hear you. That is why it is Insane. But I keep my posts, wrong or right, to illustrate what the thought process was (wrong or right). So many kiblitzers here find groundbreaking moves that GMs do not find. I wonder how they get flashes of brilliancy all of a sudden :) |
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| Dec-20-09 | | patzer2: Today's insanely difficult Sunday puzzle solution is 48...Bb5! which initiates a winning clearance and passed pawn combination with a key finesse (i.e. 48...Bb5 49 Kf5 d3 50 Kf6 Ba4!) as clearly described in one of the excellent must-read posts above by <Jimfromprovidence>. P.S.: I also fell into the 48...a5?? trap in my attempt to solve today's puzzle. However, once I saw Jim's post I felt like "I could have had a V8" slap on the forehead because it suddenly seemed so obvious. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | SufferingBruin: <As predicted, the b pawn is now charging towards the finishing line. Time for the oversized diva to clear her throat, a quick handshake, write "0-1" on the scoresheet and rehearse what we are going to say at the post-game interview...> Great stuff. I swear, one could learn a lot about chess by just reading over Once's posts. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | butilikefur: it seems Bb5 wins.. quite easily with the following <48...Bb5 49. Kf3 d3 50. Kf2 d2> but if White tries <49. Kf5> then <49...d3 50. Kf6 a6> 50...d2 51. Rxb5 Ke8 (51...e1=Q 52. Rb8+ Qe8 53. g7+ Kg8 54. Rxe8+ Kh7 55. Rh8+ mate) 52. g7 e1=Q (52...d1=Q 53. g8=Q+ Kd7 54. Qe6+ Kc7 55. Qe7+ Kc6 56. Qc5+ or 55...Qd7 56. Rc5+ wins) 53. g8=Q+ Kd7 54. Qg4+ Kc6 55. Qc4+ mates <51. Re7> 51. g7+ Kg8 52. Rd5 e1=Q <51...d2> White can get a perpetual with 52. Rf7+ Kg8 53. Rg7+ etc. and 52...Ke8 is lost for Black <53. g7 Kd8 54. g8=Q+ Be8 55. Rd7+ Kxd7 56. Qe6+ Kc7 57. Qxe2> can't find more than a draw.. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | Once: <SufferingBruin> Too kind. If only I could translate it into spotting Sunday's more regularly, winning more OTB games or working out the answer to "THINK! Hint: Lee" ... I've just spent a very unproductive hour looking up the chess paintings of Paul Klee... |
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| Dec-20-09 | | butilikefur: as jimprovidence had earlier said, after 48...Bb5 49. Kf5 d3 50. Kf6 Black's winning move is <50...Ba4>. if 51. Re7 Black immediately plays 51...e1=Q 52. Rxe1 d2 53. Rf1 (or somewhere else on the rank) 53...d1=Q 54. Rxd1 Bxd1 55. g7+ Kg8 56. Kg6 Bxh5+ or 56...a5 wins easily |
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Dec-20-09
 | | Jimfromprovidence: There is actually another important reason that in the line 48...Bb5 49 Kf5 d3 50 Kf6, that 50...Ba4! is necessary. 50...Ba4 also protects d1, which is crucial in this variation annotated by <setoflagos>. <48 ... Bb5
49 Kf5 d3
50 Kf6 Ba4 or 51 Rxb5 e1=Q 52 g7+ and mate
51 Re7 e1=Q
52 Rxe1 d2
53 Ra1 d1=Q wins>
Position after 52...d2
click for larger viewNotice that in this line that after 51 Re7 white wants to play 52 g7+, with mate to follow. But white is one tempo short. 51…e1=Q 52 Rxe1 d2 stops it. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | A Karpov Fan: i went for a5 (but only thought for 30 s or so today as I doubted I would ever get a Sunday) |
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| Dec-20-09 | | JG27Pyth: goodevans:<So it was <(iii) both>. At least I chose the same wrong move as a 2500+ GM.> Yeah, that's the consolation soup du jour. Waiter, I'll have what he's having. |
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| Dec-20-09 | | gofer: This was a little simpler than usual. The white king is cut off from the black king, so cannot attack.
The white rook is tied to the e-file to stop e1=Q. While Black's Bd3 and Pd4 protect Pe2 then white is
stuffed, so white must try Kf3 and Kf2 to allow the rook to move. That gives black 3 moves to drive
forward his huge king side majority!
So I would recon it pans out like this...
48 ... a5
49 Kf3 a4
50 Kf2 a3
51 b3
and now the icing on the cake!
51 ... Bc4!
Black is still protecting Pe2 and even allowing d3 to protect it, if white doesn't react quickly enough. But
obviously white has two options; 52 bxc4 and 52 Ra5 both are winning for black! Option 1 (the refusal - the worse of the two options) 52 Ra5 Bxb3
53 Kxe2 Bc4+
54 Kd2 b3
55 Kc1 d3
at which point black has complete control even if white attempts some form of counter attack 56 Ra8+ Ke7
57 Ra7+ Kd6 (moving away from any potential checks from g8=Q or g8=N) 58 g7 d2+
59 Kxd2 b2 winning!
As now black will get a queen and the Bc4 can protect g8=Q! Option 2 (the acceptance)
52 bxc4 b3!
It is important to not allow white to dictate where the black pawn will queen. If black plays 53 Rb5 then black plays a2. If black plays 53 Ra5 then black plays b2. In either case black has to
then change files to stop the coronation. So white probably takes Pe2 to avoid making the decision! 53 Kxe2 a2 (because black wants to queen on b1 allowing check on e4) 54 Ra5 b2
55 Rxa2 b1=Q
56 Ra8+ Ke7
57 Ra7+ Kd6
58 g7 Qe4+ winning!
Time to check... |
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| Dec-20-09 | | gofer: 52 g7+ ...
52 ... Aggghhh!!!!
So yes this was easier than usual! Easier to get egg on your face! :-)
Kudos to those that found the solution and CG for providing a puzzle that had a hidden kicker four moves into a possible solution! |
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