White to play and win.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/cxEUd9N.png)
RC
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ReformedCharacter wrote:I've been trying to improve my chess game for the last few months and came across this difficult but beautiful puzzle. It is very difficult and I will post a link to the solution in one week's time. I hope you enjoy it.
White to play and win.
RC
Lootman wrote:As expressed the puzzle seems a bit ambiguous.
Some puzzles say "White to play and mate in n moves". The fact that yours says only "win" could be interpreted as getting to an obviously winning position rather than actually mating the black king.
It might be possible to come up with a number of variations where white can build a clearly winning position. But your use of the word "beautiful" indicates that there is an elegant mate in there somewhere. And in that case it is usual to state "mate" rather than "win". And to cite the number of moves to that mate, with best play by both sides.
AsleepInYorkshire wrote:ReformedCharacter wrote:I've been trying to improve my chess game for the last few months and came across this difficult but beautiful puzzle. It is very difficult and I will post a link to the solution in one week's time. I hope you enjoy it.
White to play and win.
2hrs later ... I give in![]()
Must be a great move
Lootman wrote:As expressed the puzzle seems a bit ambiguous.
Some puzzles say "White to play and mate in n moves". The fact that yours says only "win" could be interpreted as getting to an obviously winning position rather than actually mating the black king.
It might be possible to come up with a number of variations where white can build a clearly winning position. But your use of the word "beautiful" indicates that there is an elegant mate in there somewhere. And in that case it is usual to state "mate" rather than "win". And to cite the number of moves to that mate, with best play by both sides.
In the game of chess, an endgame study, or just study, is a composed position—that is, one that has been made up rather than played in an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find the essentially unique way for one side (usually White) to win or draw, as stipulated, against any moves the other side plays. There is no limit to the number of moves which are allowed to achieve the win; this distinguishes studies from the genre of direct mate problems (e.g. "mate in 2"). Such problems also differ qualitatively from the very common genre of tactical puzzles based around the middlegame, often based on an actual game, where a decisive tactic must be found.
Lootman wrote:Apparently it is mate in 14 whereas most puzzles are mate in 2 to 5 moves, so it is probably not a rewarding puzzle to invest that much time in. A chess player, as opposed to a puzzle solver, would probably look at this position and think:
1) White is winning as he has a pawn on the 7th rank. However immediately promoting it to a queen fails to 1 . . Nf7+
2) Black has 2 dangerous passed pawns on the 3rd rank, but they are covered by the white knight and bishop. 1 Bc2+ blockades the c pawn, whilst the e pawn can be immediately captured by 1 Ne3.
The awkward black move is 1 . . c4 which is a discovered check that forces the white king off its preferred diagonal and where it really wants to be (e7). Other squares lead to annoying checks from the two black knights.
Gengulphus wrote:Lootman wrote:As expressed the puzzle seems a bit ambiguous.
Some puzzles say "White to play and mate in n moves". The fact that yours says only "win" could be interpreted as getting to an obviously winning position rather than actually mating the black king.
It might be possible to come up with a number of variations where white can build a clearly winning position. But your use of the word "beautiful" indicates that there is an elegant mate in there somewhere. And in that case it is usual to state "mate" rather than "win". And to cite the number of moves to that mate, with best play by both sides.
"Play and win" puzzles are certainly much less common than "play and mate in n moves" puzzles, and are sometimes known as "studies" or "endgame studies" rather than "puzzles" - but they are a type of chess puzzle.
Lootman wrote:This position could happen in real play, but it is rather unusual in the configuration of the four passed pawns. In a game with a time limit I would probably play 1Ne3 and 2Bc2+ (or the other way around) to nullify the advanced black pawns, but I am fairly sure that isn't the solution because they are too obvious.
UncleEbenezer wrote:I wonder if the startling beauty could be that the pawn gets promoted to a knight rather than queen?
ReformedCharacter wrote:If anyone is still interested...
3. Bc2 Kxh5
RC
UncleEbenezer wrote:3. Bc2 Kxh5
Still eludes me. B-f5 is an obvious followup to that, but then ... N-f7 with check gives black time to follow with ... B-a5, and the queening is stone-dead while black's prospects for a queen remain very much alive. That leaves only(?) the unlikely immediate knighting of that pawn - which I know not how to notate - as move 4, whereupon black's choices include advancing the pawn to e2 in what looks like cruising to victory.
You're going to explain next how white sacrifices the pawn and the bishop
Lootman wrote:UncleEbenezer wrote:3. Bc2 Kxh5
Still eludes me. B-f5 is an obvious followup to that, but then ... N-f7 with check gives black time to follow with ... B-a5, and the queening is stone-dead while black's prospects for a queen remain very much alive. That leaves only(?) the unlikely immediate knighting of that pawn - which I know not how to notate - as move 4, whereupon black's choices include advancing the pawn to e2 in what looks like cruising to victory.
You're going to explain next how white sacrifices the pawn and the bishop
Continuing the kamikaze theme, how about:
4. g4+ Kg4
5. Bg6
Now the black king is cut off and the white bishop's control of the f7 square assures that the white d pawn can advance to queendom.
UncleEbenezer wrote:Lootman wrote:UncleEbenezer wrote:Still eludes me. B-f5 is an obvious followup to that, but then ... N-f7 with check gives black time to follow with ... B-a5, and the queening is stone-dead while black's prospects for a queen remain very much alive. That leaves only(?) the unlikely immediate knighting of that pawn - which I know not how to notate - as move 4, whereupon black's choices include advancing the pawn to e2 in what looks like cruising to victory.
You're going to explain next how white sacrifices the pawn and the bishop
Continuing the kamikaze theme, how about:
4. g4+ Kg4
5. Bg6
Now the black king is cut off and the white bishop's control of the f7 square assures that the white d pawn can advance to queendom.
Nope. The black king is now under no pressure, and 5 ... B-a5 kills white's queening stone dead.
AsleepInYorkshire wrote:I've struggled
But I wonder if whites pawn becomes a bishop?
AiY
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