[Puzzle Road] A surprise for Black! (P17)

Welcome to puzzle road!

I seriously don’t have any idea on how this position came on the board, but while my training for Saturday/Sunday’s tournament OTB, I had this beautiful endgame! Luckily, I had White and not Black. Else, I think I won’t have it called “Beautiful” (!!)

On my side, I decided to play a move, which surprised my opponent! (I could see in his face his opinion about how I played) Two possibilities: he did not see the moves and is surprised I could play it. Second possibility: he did think he could win with Black… against me!

17/ A surprise for Black! (Topic: clearance)

The right move in this position with White is Rook d4 (!!) to clear the squares of the pawn on the c-column!

Alright, the Knight cannot take possession of the c8-square and if the king takes the rook, we just need to advance our pawn!

If he doesn’t take, we easily just take the Knight!

Maybe easy to analyze, but still complicate to find!

Really good job if you saw this immediately!

Have a great day!
@Kyu13

More blogs written by @Kyu13:
The main question: How to become a stronger player?
The Scotch Game: A good opening?
Reach 2000 with this trick used by GMs!

Puzzle Road:
[Puzzle Road] Attack, Block and Take! (P1)
[Puzzle Road] Check the king for a good promotion! (P2)
[Puzzle Road] Bishops vs. Pawns: fight for a draw! (P3)
[Puzzle Road] Go out of my way! (P4)
[Puzzle Road] Unbelievable, I missed that! (P5)
[Puzzle Road] A checkmate in remembrance of Bobby Fischer! (P6)
[Puzzle Road] Target and take! (P7)
[Puzzle Road] A checkmate to win 1 of 15 games... (P8)
[Puzzle Road] Pin-Pong! (P9)
[Puzzle Road] 2 Brilliant moves and 1 Brilliant News! (P10)
[Puzzle Road] A checkmate in 7 moves! (P11)
[Puzzle Road] Do you still doubt of the power of the Knights? (P12)
[Puzzle Road] Become an opening expert! (P13)
[Puzzle Road] A difficult choice... (P14)
[Puzzle Road] Can you win with White? (P15)
[Puzzle Road] No choice, I need to sacrifice! (P16)