| Jul-16-16 | | RandomVisitor: 26.Bxh6 g6... |
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Jul-16-16
 | | Penguincw: Doesn't seem like too hard of a puzzle. Although I only got 26.Bxh6 (logical). The thing is, I didn't know what black would reply with. But assuming this was OTB, and I was playing white, and my opponent just played 26...Nxe4, I would've incorrectly responded with 27.Nxd4, then 27...Rxh6, and material is balanced again (well, black has the bishop pair). Why did the game end 34...Kf7 1-0 though? Assuming this game ended due to resignation, I always wonder when a player makes their move, and before their opponent can even reply, they resign. Why? I mean, if I was OTB, even if I just hung my queen, I would not resign right away. I would force my opponent to know that my queen is en prise, capture it, and then I resign. Although it is the GM level here. Black can still play on for a few moves, but white has queenside pawns, so no chance for a fortress or anything. As for this actual tournament, doing a bit of research, I'm not exactly sure how this tournament was organized, but it looked like it pit France (Sokolov, MVL, Bauer, Fressinet, Nataf and Degraeve) vs. China (Wang Yue, Zhao Jun, Zhang Pengxiang, Ye Jiangchuan, Yu Shaoteng and Zhao Jianchao). Sokolov went 3.5/6, Ye Jiangchuan went 2.5/6. France won 20-16. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | TorontoNewf: <Penguincw>
<Why did the game end 34...Kf7 1-0 though>35. Qxe5, and within a few checks, will clear all of the black queenside pawns. The black rook is inactive and is always in danger of a queen fork. I am sure that even a strong club player could play this position against a GM. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | stst: One of the many many variations...
26.Bxh6 g6
27.Bg5 gxR
28.Bxf6 dis+ Kh7
29.BxQ RxB
30.Qxf5 Re8
31.f6 dis+ Qh4+
32.Kg8 Qh7#
Not difficult, just "messy....." |
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| Jul-16-16 | | drollere: material is equal; white has a Qside pawn majority but an isolated K pawn, drawing the KB into a pawn role. white's obvious threat is Bxh6 (which also adds support to e4) and Rg5. the reply g6 seems to limit damage to a single pawn, trades off the bishops and prepares Nh5 after Kxf8. instead, black tries to exchange his way out of the attack by giving away his best piece. Nxe4 covers g5, opens the 6th rank to the rook and attacks the queen, forcing the exchanges. but it seems too drastic, and liberates the white N. everything after 28. Nxe4 Rxh6 is about black's f7 pawn. curse that pawn! black does play g6 after all, but i liked the point that, because black captured the bishop with the rook instead of trading the bishops with g6, black can't use that rook to defend f7. so white gets the pawn back and exposes the black king. white has Qxe5 and plenty of checks to skewer the black Qside pawns. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | mel gibson: I saw the first move.
DR4 64 bit agrees but puts white only +0.5 ahead so
it's almost a draw. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | drollere: <26.Bxh6 g6
27.Bg5 gxR
29.Bxf6+ >
if the bishop retreats, then 27. ... Bg7 defends the N, releases the pin on g6, and prepares gxf6, Qb6 or Nh5 |
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| Jul-16-16 | | AlicesKnight: What happens after 26.Bh6 g6; 27.Bg5 Nh5? |
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| Jul-16-16 | | The Kings Domain: Pretty obvious the answer to the puzzle although the follow-up to it is not as clear-cut and easy. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | WorstPlayerEver: @AlicesKnight
I guess the game is drawn after your variation. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | morfishine: I would play <26...Bxh6> instantly at the club, but I'd calculate a bit more in a Swiss ***** |
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| Jul-16-16 | | TorontoNewf: <RandomVisitor: 26. Bxh6 g6> 26. ... g6 seems to open up tactical threats on f6 and along the g file. 27. Bg5 Bg7 (27. ... gxf5 28. Bxf6 leads to mate) 28. Ng4 followed by R(e1)f1 should win the horse whereas 29 gxf5 30. Nxf6+ again leads to mate) |
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| Jul-16-16 | | TorontoNewf: <AlicesKnight: What happens after 26.Bh6 g6; 27.Bg5 Nh5?> Great response! |
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| Jul-16-16 | | WorstPlayerEver: In fact 23. Qg3 was not so good; Black should immediately have responded with 23... Nh5 |
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| Jul-16-16 | | YouRang: Well, anyone who passed Chess 101 should spot <26.Bxh6>.
click for larger view
Although this mostly seems to recover a pawn.
Frankly, I assumed black would reply with <26...g6>, attacking white's DSB and freeing the black DSB from defense of Pg7. White can exchange DSB's with 27.Bxf8 Kxf8 28.Rf3 Nh5, but I don't see this as being good for white. Better is <27.Bg5!>, pinning the Nf6:
click for larger view
Technically, this blocks the pin on Pg6 allowing ...gxf5, but that would be answered by Bxf6+, winning the queen. It seems black must either guard the N with ...Bg7 or ...Be7, or attack white's queen with the N with <27...Nh5>. I didn't see anything exciting after any of these options. ~~~~~
Checking with the engine, I discovered that there was indeed nothing exciting. In fact, the point of today's puzzle was evidently to accurately defend against black's ill-advised <26...Nxe4>
click for larger view
This attacks our Q and our DSB, but that attack is obviously quelled with <27.Bxe4>. Black can't take my DSB yet since I'm attacking his Bb7, so first <27...Bxe4 28.Nxe4> and now black can take it <28...Rxh6>
click for larger view
The problem with this is that materially we're even, but the g7 pawn is still pinned and white can double-up rooks on the f-file. The game shows one way to exploit these advantages. But as far as I can tell, this is a busted puzzle. Give yourself credit for solving this Satuday puzzle if you found 26.Bxh6. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | YouRang: <AlicesKnight: What happens after 26.Bh6 g6; 27.Bg5 Nh5?>
click for larger view
Well, white would have to move the queen...
It looks like white is okay with 28.Qg4. Now black has to move his Q out of take, or go for repetition with ...Nf6. Or, white could play 28.Qh4, with likely exchanges following 28...Be7. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | YouRang: <Why did the game end 34...Kf7 1-0 though? Assuming this game ended due to resignation, I always wonder when a player makes their move, and before their opponent can even reply, they resign. Why?> I can see a player making a move, and then while his opponent is thinking, deciding that playing on futile. At that point, there's no need to wait around for the opponent to make a move. You just flip the board over and walk away with at least your dignity! ;-) |
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| Jul-16-16 | | Patriot: 26.Bxh6 Nxe4 27.Bxe4 Bxe4 28.Nxe4 Rxh6 looked safe enough to me and that's about all I could figure. I thought about 26.Rxf6 Rxf6 27.Ng4 Rg6 28.Nxh6+ Rxh6 29.Bxh6 or perhaps 28...Kh7 there as an attempt to win. Black could also respond with 26...Qxf6. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | devere: 26.Bxh6 +0.31 Stockfish 7 depth 41.
Not a good problem, because the main line depends on the opponent making a mistake (26...Nxe4?) |
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| Jul-16-16 | | Patriot: In my 26.Rxf6 Rxf6 line, 27.Ng4 Rg6 28.Nxh6+ gxh6  Somehow I wasn't seeing that Rg6 broke the pin...At least I saw that 28...Rxh6 is worse than 28...Kh7, which is an advantage to black. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | Patriot: <devere> I think it is still a good problem because 26.Bxh6 is the only way to get an advantage. According to Stockfish, 26...g6 is the best move which is not a scary move or anything--it doesn't really attempt to get anything back for the pawn--but everything else is progressively worse. 26...Nxe4 is a big mistake but the question is, did you know this? I certainly didn't know it was a major mistake but the computer knew it right away. I had to do a little calculation on this and wasn't sure how to proceed. I understand your point though but sometimes the adventure is what's important. |
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| Jul-16-16 | | Timi Timov: I don' t think this should be a Saturday Puzzle, rather a Thursday one |
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| Jul-16-16 | | agb2002: The material is identical.
I haven't found the time for this puzzle but I think I'd play 26.Bxh6 based on 26... Nxe4 27.Bxe4 Bxe4 28.Nxe4 Rxh6 29.Rxe5 which seems to win a pawn at least. |
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| Jul-17-16 | | RandomVisitor: After 26.Bxh6
click for larger viewKomodo-10-64bit:
<+0.25/48 26...g6 27.Bg5 Nh5> 28.Qh4 Be7 29.Bxe7 Qxe7 30.Qxe7 R6xe7 31.Rf3 Rd8 32.c4 bxc4 33.Bxc4 Kg7 34.Kg1 Rd4 35.Rc3 a5 36.Bf1 Nf6 37.Rc4 Red7 38.Rc5 Nxe4 39.Nxe4 Bxe4 40.Rxa5 f5 41.Rxe5 Rd2 42.b4 Ra2 43.a4 Rd4 44.a5 Rxb4 45.a6 Rbb2 46.h4 Kf6 47.Re8 Rxg2+ 48.Bxg2 Rxg2+ 49.Kf1 Ra2 50.Rb8 Rxa6 51.Kf2 g5 52.hxg5+ Kxg5 53.Ke3 Ra3+ 54.Kd4 Kf4 55.Kc5 Rd3 56.Kc4 Ra3 57.Rd8 Ra4+ |
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Kibitzing
sac: 34.Rxf7
