Interesting Position From A Lasker Game

I guess I haven't posted in a while. I'm on kind of a semi-vacation from chess. 🙂

Here is an interesting position that I came across.



Before I give anything away, I'll just leave this up for a while.

It is white to move right now.

Well the first thought would be

1. Rf8+ Kxf8 2. gxh7 Ra4+ 3 Kg5 and white Queens next move.

Yes, that looks simple enough. I wonder what Black's last move was?

Lasker actually played 1.Rf8+ Kxf8 2.gxh7, leading to the following position:



Black to move

Originally posted by Diet Coke
Well the first thought would be

1. Rf8+ Kxf8 2. gxh7 Ra4+ 3 Kg5 and white Queens next move.

I can't find a way to refute 3...Rh4! yet. It looks winning for black.

Originally posted by SwissGambit
I can't find a way to refute 3...Rh4! yet. It looks winning for black.

You didn't fall into the trap (although my second diagram with black to move may have been a good hint 🙂 ).

After 2. ... Ra4+, it doesn't matter where the king goes !!!

3. ... Rh4 4.Kxh4 g5+ !!

Black's a pawn queens, and white's h pawn doesn't !!!

This is from the simul Lasker-Loman 1913.

Even the great ones can fall into a nice deep trap. 🙂

Let me change that a bit.

This position is "adapted" from the simul Lasker-Loman.

According to chessgames.com, the actual game was played in 1903 and had more pawns on the board.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1267162

The "adapted" position is from an old issue of Chess Life Magazine.

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
You didn't fall into the trap (although my second diagram with black to move may have been a good hint 🙂 ).

After 2. ... Ra4+, it doesn't matter where the king goes !!!

3. ... Rh4 4.Kxh4 g5+ !!

Black's a pawn queens, and white's h pawn doesn't !!!

This is from the simul Lasker-Loman 1913.

Even the great ones can fall into a nice deep trap. 🙂

I suppose if Kramnik can get mated in one by Fritz, then anything is possible, although this case is far more understandable, since it was a simul.

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
Let me change that a bit.

This position is "adapted" from the simul Lasker-Loman.

According to chessgames.com, the actual game was played in 1903 and had more pawns on the board.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1267162

The "adapted" position is from an old issue of Chess Life Magazine.

I wondered why the position looked more like a chess problem.

They took a few pawns off the board. 🙂

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
You didn't fall into the trap (although my second diagram with black to move may have been a good hint 🙂 ).

After 2. ... Ra4+, it doesn't matter where the king goes !!!

3. ... Rh4 4.Kxh4 g5+ !!

Black's a pawn queens, and white's h pawn doesn't !!!

This is from the simul Lasker-Loman 1913.

Even the great ones can fall into a nice deep trap. 🙂

At least I went down with Good company. 🙂

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
I guess I haven't posted in a while. I'm on kind of a semi-vacation from chess. 🙂

Here is an interesting position that I came across.

[fen]6k1/6pp/6P1/p7/6K1/8/5RPP/r7[/fen]

Before I give anything away, I'll just leave this up for a while.

It is white to move right now.

I did not play that!

Originally posted by Diet Coke
Well the first thought would be

1. Rf8+ Kxf8 2. gxh7 Ra4+ 3 Kg5 Rh4 0-1

Funny that you give the exactly correct losing line. There are some twins of this idea too - but this is the most well-known version I believe.

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
I guess I haven't posted in a while. I'm on kind of a semi-vacation from chess. 🙂

Here is an interesting position that I came across.

[fen]6k1/6pp/6P1/p7/6K1/8/5RPP/r7[/fen]

Before I give anything away, I'll just leave this up for a while.

It is white to move right now.

This position is drawn. There are no tricks (Rf8+??), and after a bunch of pawn trades we will reach a drawn position (KR vs. KR, or KP vs. K w/o opposition).

I should have known there was more to this position than the obvious Rf8+, which any experienced player would have seen in 0.5 seconds.

The game that the position is based on, plus a few other examples, can be found here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/prok.htm

Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromfics
Lasker actually played 1.Rf8+ Kxf8 2.gxh7, leading to the following position:

[fen]5k2/6pP/8/p7/6K1/8/6PP/r7[/fen]

Black to move

..Ra4+, Kg5 ..Rh4!! Kxh4 ..g5+, Kxg5 ..Kg7 0-1