This is a pretty basic swindle I came up with in live chess. White's last move was Rxf7.

I don't get it. How is this a swindle?

Black is very behind at the start of the puzzle. At the end of the puzzle, white has no chance with black definitely promoting to a queen. White has gone from an "easy" victory to a no chance loss, making it a swindle (or clutching defeat from the jaws of victory :P)

Yep. I deliberately left the 'f' pawn hanging, to activate my king and get in front of the passed pawn. If he took the f pawn, it was a forced win. If he didn't...the point would've swung the other way, I'm sure.

My point is, though, white never really had a chance (from where the puzzle begins, at least)

Very nice. It was a swindle for sure.

I'm with mosqutip, it needs an extra move to be a swindle. At the start of the puzzle, black is already winning, despite his momentary material disadvantage.

I took a second look at it, and I suppose you're right. The real error came earlier in the game when he moved his rook away and it couldn't defend anymore. However, I think he probably had chances by sacing the rook for the passed pawn and using his four pawn queenside majority against my one. Taking the f pawn sealed the deal, though.

EDIT: thanks for all the comments, by the way.

The problem is that white doesn't actually have a way to sac the rook for the pawn (once again, that's after the puzzle starts). If he could, he would certainly have at least a draw, and at cursory glance, I'd think he'd probably win anyway.

I meant a move before. The rook was actually blockading the passed pawn a few moves earlier. Before the puzzle started, he had the oppurtunity to sac the rook and at least draw.

good puz

I played something similar in a blitz game once: I dropped the bishop in a rook and bishop against rook and bishop endgame with equal pawns. I really thought I was losing so I used up my last coupple of minutes for a deep think and found out that if I forced the trade of the remaining rooks I had a forceed win against his bishop.

unfortunately this comeback against the one who would end up second in the tournament did not help my unfortunate score

After c3, why not Rc7? ...

*crickets chirp*

then it is only to answer with Bc5 blocking the rook

Yup yup, brain still not at 100%... thanks Hansen

Question:

Rc7, Bc5 to block, Rb7

Is my thinking incorrect?

To forkU, it's in the move list. It loses to c2.

forkU absolutely, but after Rb7 c2 still wins

Didn't look at the move list. Sorry about that.

nice puzzle