A Puzzler

One from a kings indian game I saw recently, this isn't the exact situation but it works.

BLACK TO MOVE AND WIN

Nf3 I believe fits the bill.

No because the bishop's path is blocked by the knight. After that, he can still move. Not a checkmate.

Impossible to win in one move.

Originally posted by goalkeeper24
Impossible to win in one move.

He didn't specify "black to move and win in one..." 😛

1. ... Bxf2+
2. Kh2 (Rxf2...Qxb1+) ... Bg1+

Originally posted by prosoccer
[fen]B3rrk1/pbp2ppp/3p4/2b1n1B1/Q6P/P5P1/1q3P2/1R3RK1[/fen]

One from a kings indian game I saw recently, this isn't the exact situation but it works.

BLACK TO MOVE AND WIN

Nf3+ Kany Qxb1 wins easily. had this position occurred in one of my games, I would not even waste time considering anything else. It is easy to see that black gets enough material for his sacced queen.


in fact there are lots of ways to win. Bxf2+ wins too. Even Qxb1 right away should win.

Originally posted by richjohnson
1. ... Bxf2+
2. Kh2 (Rxf2...Qxb1+) ... Bg1+

Oo, that's a gorgeous combination. Is it what you had in mind, prosoccer?

(Jusuh, he said this wasn't the exact position. The point was to find the mating combination; the other forces can be balanced to make this a proper problem easily enough.)

Originally posted by CZeke
Oo, that's a gorgeous combination. Is it what you had in mind, prosoccer?

(Jusuh, he said this wasn't the exact position. The point was to find the mating combination; the other forces can be balanced to make this a proper problem easily enough.)

The game I believe prosoccer is referring to is Botwinnik-Smyslov from 1954.



Black (Smyslow) to play. This is the correct position

Just giving it a shot:

1. Nf3+ -- Kh1, Kg2
2. Nd2+ -- f3, Bxb7, K anywhere
3. Nxb1

-Notation is assuming black is to move first- Also on move 2 for white they can play Qe4 or Qc6 as well, but both moves seemingly lose to 3. BxQ+.

Looking at it a little more it doesn't look terribly good for black. argh...

Originally posted by Jusuh
The game I believe prosoccer is referring to is Botwinnik-Smyslov from 1954.

[fen]B4rk1/pb3pbp/3p2p1/4n1B1/Q5P1/P5P1/1q3P2/1R3RK1 w - - 0 1[/fen]

Black (Smyslow) to play. This is the correct position

Here's the complete game:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1032320

Thanks for the link. That was well played by Smyslov -- a good demonstration of Capablanca's point that three minor pieces are a bit better than a queen.

I still love richjohnson's combination. I'll see if I can rejig the position so that's the solution.

Haa! Knew it. It had to be Bxh8, for some reason I thought Nd2+ won a rook but later noticed black only had one rook to start with. That is a rather nice touch though: 1. Bxa8 -- Rxb2
2. Nf3+ -- K anyhwere
3. Nxg5+ -- K anyhwere, f3, Qd4, Qe6
4. Bxb2 🙂