[Puzzle Road] Push or not push, this is the question! (P25)

Welcome to Puzzle Road!

The half of your pieces on the board, from your color, are pawns. The pawns indeed are the most important pieces for a player in my opinion. In the opening, you need to push them and to control some important squares and the center. In the middlegame, you use them to win squares and next win material. In the endgame, the last step of the chess game, you push them as much as you can to reach the 8^th rank and to promote them to Queens!

In this puzzle, you will need to find a trick to promote them to Queens. How? Push or not push, this is the question! One of your pawns needs only 1 move to reach the 8^th rank but would be captured by the opponent’s rook if you move it. If you move your rook away from the 7^th rank, your opponent takes the pawn…

25/ Push or not push, this is the question! (Topic: 7^th rank, 8^th rank and pawn promotion)

First move: f6 (!!)

By moving the rook, we lose the d-pawn. By moving the d-pawn, we lose this pawn… But by moving the f-pawn, we force the black king to move on f7 to stop the pawn.

Second move: f7 (!!)

The idea behind this move: if the black king takes the pawn, we can play d8=Q, because our rook that’s standing on a7 checks the king and Black cannot take our d-pawn in this case. Moreover, Black needs to play now King g7, because else, we make a queen on f8.

Third move: Rook a8!

We’re maybe giving our f-pawn but remember that the d-pawn is only one square away from the promotion square. Now, Black must take our pawn on f7, which allows us to play Rook d8=Q+!

Now, White can win with a Queen more!

Have a great day,
@Kyu13

ADDITIONAL COMMENT: I played today 5 hours in a row blitz games (!!!!!!!!!!)

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)
[Puzzle Road] A surprise for Black! (P17)
[Puzzle Road] Checkmate like Tal! (P18)
[Puzzle Road] Objective draw! (P19)
[Puzzle Road] Escape me if you can! (P20)
[Puzzle Road] One Queen. Two Queens. A checkmate! (P21)
[Puzzle Road] Sacrifice like a Grandmaster! (P22)
[Puzzle Road] The four fantasctic moves! (P23)
[Puzzle Road] Offering free material? (P24)