Nikolai, thanks for posting these puzzles they are really fun and interesting to try and solve. This last one is really interesting to me. Every move white plays has to be exact or white gets checkmated in one. That would be really a pressure-packed situation if you had this position over-the-board in a tournament game. Facing a mate in one, is as desperate a situation one could have over-the board.I bet if you solved alot of puzzles like this one, it would really help you over-the board.
Practice makes perfect! But honestly, I think that not everyone enjoys the heat of the battle. Sometimes, I feel that too much energy is needed to even stay in a game and quality (and beauty) is relatively small part of the whole. Probably that’s what defines ones style as a player more than anything else.
I agree with you Nikolai,competition makes me anxious, I am by nature an anxious person anyway.I really enjoy the creative aspect of chess much more so than the competitive aspect.I would much rather play a creative game and lose,than play an extremely competitive game,involving time pressure and all those other factors. By the way, I found a fascinating endgame position from A GM game while I was looking at some of my old chess magazines which may be worthy of being posted on this website perhaps?
Here is the starting position for you: Playing white was GM Grischuk and playing Black was GM Bauer
8/8/2b2k1P/8/8/2K5/P1B5/8 w - - 0 1
White to play:
Here is what happened in the game: 1.Kb4 Bd7 2.Ba4 Bf5 3.Bb5 Bc2 4.Kc3 Bd1 5.Be8! (The key move says GM Baburin).Now black has to allow the a-pawn to advance as he can't move his king (ie.72...Ke7? 73.h7) The game concluded: 5...Be2 6.a4 Ba6 7.a5 Bb7 78.Kd4 Bc8 76.Kc5 Ba6 77.Kb6 Bc8 78.Bc6 Kg6 79.Bb7 1-0
I hope you like playing through this endgame when you have a chance to, and that maybe it might be worthy of being posted by you to your website.
Sincerely, Wayne
P.S. Who do you think will win the World Championship? Anand or Topalov? It seems most experts have already written off Topalov even before the match has begun. I say in a match anything can happen! Take care Nikolai.
Nikolai I thought you might be interested in what endgame tablebases say about the position I gave you above: [Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "New game"] [Black "?"] [Result "*"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/8/2b2k1P/8/8/2K5/P1B5/8 w - - 0 1"] [PlyCount "23"]
I can see why an endgame like that is important and I know it isn’t easy even when it looks like it. Unfortunately, my chess level isn’t high enough and I can easily miss essential elements and even principles. That’s why I enjoy the analyses you post on your blog – they contain concepts and principles. The puzzles that I post here are usually tactics that I managed to solve by myself (or at least tried). In addition (most of the time) I’d verify the solution with my chess engine just out of curiosity and to provide more complete picture.
Predictions in the WCC match aren’t quite my thing and I don’t see the point. Sure, I’m excited about it and I hope for us all to see some beautiful games. Let the better player win!
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5 comments:
Nikolai, thanks for posting these puzzles they are really fun and interesting to try and solve. This last one is really interesting to me. Every move white plays has to be exact or white gets checkmated in one. That would be really a pressure-packed situation if you had this position over-the-board in a tournament game. Facing a mate in one, is as desperate a situation one could have over-the board.I bet if you solved alot of puzzles like this one, it would really help you over-the board.
Practice makes perfect!
But honestly, I think that not everyone enjoys the heat of the battle. Sometimes, I feel that too much energy is needed to even stay in a game and quality (and beauty) is relatively small part of the whole. Probably that’s what defines ones style as a player more than anything else.
I agree with you Nikolai,competition makes me anxious, I am by nature an anxious person anyway.I really enjoy the creative aspect of chess much more so than the competitive aspect.I would much rather play a creative game and lose,than play an extremely competitive game,involving time pressure and all those other factors. By the way, I found a fascinating endgame position from A GM game while I was looking at some of my old chess magazines which may be worthy of being posted on this website perhaps?
Here is the starting position for you:
Playing white was GM Grischuk and playing Black was GM Bauer
8/8/2b2k1P/8/8/2K5/P1B5/8 w - - 0 1
White to play:
Here is what happened in the game:
1.Kb4 Bd7 2.Ba4 Bf5 3.Bb5 Bc2 4.Kc3 Bd1 5.Be8! (The key move says GM Baburin).Now black has to allow the a-pawn to advance as he can't move his king (ie.72...Ke7? 73.h7)
The game concluded: 5...Be2 6.a4 Ba6 7.a5 Bb7 78.Kd4 Bc8 76.Kc5 Ba6 77.Kb6 Bc8 78.Bc6 Kg6 79.Bb7 1-0
I hope you like playing through this endgame when you have a chance to, and that maybe it might be worthy of being posted by you to your website.
Sincerely,
Wayne
P.S. Who do you think will win the World Championship? Anand or Topalov? It seems most experts have already written off Topalov even before the match has begun. I say in a match anything can happen! Take care Nikolai.
Nikolai I thought you might be interested in what endgame tablebases say about the position I gave you above:
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "New game"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/8/2b2k1P/8/8/2K5/P1B5/8 w - - 0 1"]
[PlyCount "23"]
1. Kb4 Bd7 ({Endgame tablebases indicate this continuation allows black to
last longer:} 1... Kf7 2. Bb3+ Kg6 3. h7 Kg7 4. h8=Q+ Kxh8 5. Kc5 Be8 6.Bc4 Ba4 7. Kb4 Bc2 8. Bb3 Bf5 9. a4 Kg7 10. a5 Bc8 11. Kc5 Kf6 12. Kb6 Ke5 13.Ba4 Kd6 14. Bb5 Kd5 15. Bc6+ Kd4 16. Bb7 Bxb7 17. Kxb7 ) 2. Ba4 (2. h7
Bg4 3. h8=Q+ ) 2... Bf5 3. Bb5 Bc2 4. Kc3 Bd1 5. Be8 $1 {GM Baburin gives this a ! however endgame tablebases give a better continuation for white, that
being 5.h7.} (Better is 5. h7 Bf3 (5... Kg7 6. h8=Q+ Kxh8 (6... Kg6 7. Qe5 Kf7 (7...
Bg4 8. Be8+ Kh7 9. Qe7+ Kg8 10. Qf7+ Kh8 11. Qf6+ Kg8 12. Qg6+ Kh8 13. Bf7 Be2
14. Qh6#) 8. Be8+ Kg8 9. Qf6 Bb3 10. axb3 Kh7 11. Bg6+ Kh6 12. Be4+ Kh5 13.
Bf3#) 7. Kd2 Bf3 8. a4 Bg2 9. Kc3 Kg8 10. Kd4 Kf7 11. Kc5 Ke7 12. Bc6 Bf1 13.
Kb6 Kd8 14. Kb7 Bc4 15. Bb5 Bd5+ 16. Kb8 Be6 17. a5 Bc8 18. Bd3 Be6 19. a6 Bd5
20. a7 Ke8 21. Ba6 Ke7 22. Bb7 Bf7 23. a8=Q $18) 6. h8=Q+ Kg5 7. Qe5+ Kh6 8.
Be8 Kh7 9. Qf5+ Kh8 10. Qf6+ Kg8 11. Qg6+ Kh8 12. Bf7 Bh5 13. Qh6#) 5... Be2 6.
a4 Ba6 (6... Ke6 $142 7. Bd7+ Kd6 8. h7 Ke5 9. h8=Q+) 7. a5 (Better is 7. Bd7 Kg6 8.
h7 Kg7 9. h8=Q+ Kxh8 10. Kd4 Kg8 11. Bb5 Bb7 12. a5 Kf7 13. Kc5 Kf6 14. Kb6 Bc8
15. Kc7 Bh3 16. a6 Bg2 17. Bc6 Bf1 18. a7 $18) 7... Bb7 ({Endgame table bases
indicate Bauer could have survived two more moves than in the game by playing:
} 7... Kf5 8. h7 Ke5 9. h8=Q+ $18) 8. Kd4 Bc8 9. Kc5 ({Endgame tablebases:} 9.
h7 2 Kg7 10. h8=Q+ Kxh8 11. Kc5 Kg7 12. Kb6 Kf6 13. Bc6 Ke6 14. Bb7 Bd7 15.
a6 ) 9... Ba6 (9... Ke5 $142 10. h7 Bb7 11. a6 Bg2 12. h8=Q+ Ke4 13. a7 Kf5
14. Kd4 Bh1 15. Qe5+ Kg4 16. Bd7+ Kh4 17. Qf4+ Kh5 18. Be8#) 10. Kb6 (10. h7
42 Kg5 11. Bb5 Bb7 12. a6 $18) 10... Bc8 11. Bc6 Kg6 12. Bb7 {1-0} ({Endgame
tablebases:} 12. h7 Be6 13. a6 Kg5 (13... Kxh7 14. a7 Kg6 15. a8=Q))
I can see why an endgame like that is important and I know it isn’t easy even when it looks like it. Unfortunately, my chess level isn’t high enough and I can easily miss essential elements and even principles. That’s why I enjoy the analyses you post on your blog – they contain concepts and principles. The puzzles that I post here are usually tactics that I managed to solve by myself (or at least tried). In addition (most of the time) I’d verify the solution with my chess engine just out of curiosity and to provide more complete picture.
Predictions in the WCC match aren’t quite my thing and I don’t see the point. Sure, I’m excited about it and I hope for us all to see some beautiful games.
Let the better player win!
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