Sunday, May 11, 2008

Most miraculous problem ever.
























Black to move

This is the weirdest problem I have ever seen. I had great problems to believe that it actually works!

8 comments:

  1. Yes..I saw the double attack on the c3 Knight and when it falls the protection of the white rook disappears. If the pawn captures the sac'd black rook on c3, Qxd1+ and the white queen must retreat, allowing a knight advantage for black with a won endgame.

    If Instead the white rook captures the black queen, then black plays Rc1+ and both the white rook and queen will fall, leaving a won endgame again for black.

    If after 1...Rxc3 2. Qc8+ Rxc8 the white rook can capture the hanging black queen, but when the the knight recaptures the white rook we again get the winning endgame for black.

    I like your scan technique as it did not take me long to see this as it normally would.

    At least thought I saw the essence quickly!

    Grampmaster (An old codger trying to learn new tricks)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Grandpmaster,
    but what do you do after 1. ... Rxc3 2.Qf1?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice! 2 Qf1 is indeed pretty tricky. Fortunately, the back rank weakness gives Black a chance to grab the White queen. 2...Rc8! 3 Rxd4 Nxd4 4 Kh1 (otherwise 4...Rc1) and 4...Ne2 and 5...Rc1 winning. This Knight/Rook collaboration is quite remarkable.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Nd4 Rc1 Ne2 motif showed up in a side line of a recent game under Bayonet and Knights Errant. I was able to see Rxc3 removing the guard and the back rank problem as well as Rc1 Ne2+ after Qf1, but I didn't even consider Qe2.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't understand? this was a knee-jerk problem for me. one second to spot the move, maybe five seconds to make sure there isn't any cheapos for defense.

    ReplyDelete
  6. oh, right, now I see. once again I spoke too soon. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. 1... RxNc3, took me three seconds.
    then again, i can clearly see this infront of me, as white. CT-Art: stuff i clearly remember, or is it Lev Alburt's pocket chess?

    ReplyDelete