High level FFA puzzle #1

Green to move.

a) Green has an insignificant point lead, no material and is very difficult to imrpove the position. What to play? (find a plan, not only one move)

b) Is Rj6+ good? what else could blue do?

c) Who has the most practical winning chances and why

I'm probably not going to get this correct, but,

a) I think it's really hard for green to win this position, maybe even impossible with such elite level of play, so I might just consider taking on e8 and letting red and blue fight it out. However, I think that taking the e8 pawn is just an easy throw to red, so that probably isn't the right move. Alternatively, I guess green could try and get closer to the blue pawns and form some sort of blockade with the light-squared bishop and try to get a win that way, but again, as you said, it is very difficult to improve the position and even harder to win, I'd say.

b) I would consider e4 and putting the rook behind the pawn as the red queen really doesn't have a way to get in, and then slowly pushing both pawns. The only thing I would look out for is a check on d6 which might lead to a perpetual and to green winning by the 50-move-rule or threefold repetition, but since red wants to win, I doubt this will happen anyway.

c) I would say that blue has the most practical winning chances since the e8 pawn will be forever guarded by the bishop, preventing red from promoting, while blue pushes the other two pawns with the help of the rook. However, there might be chances for green to attack blue and allow red to capture some pieces and maybe even promote to another queen, in which case it is probably red who wins the game. I would say that as long as blue's king stays on the dark squares (which it already is), blue should be fine, because then green really has no way to throw the win to red (unless of course, they take the e8 pawn), and chances are by then blue has enough time to counter that anyway).

flagging with only 3 points, very high level ffa indeed 

a) In my opinion it is impossible for green to win this position with such high level of play. In order for green to win the position, red and blue have to trade off all their pieces which is quite unlikely. However green does have the ability to throw the game by cutting the e8 pawn in which case red wins.

b) Rj6+ is not a bad move but imo it doesn't do anything. Blue can try to put his rook and king behind the pawns and push them. As long as blue avoids any checks and keeps his pieces on dark squares he's perfectly fine.

c) If blue plays perfectly, it is likely that he will win since his bishop guards the e8 pawn (preventing red from promoting) and protects the king from checks while he pushes both his pawns. Green probably won't throw the game to red so blue is likely to win.

I really hope you didn't just copy my answer and reword it...

This makes me recall a position from 10 min FFA 2400+:

No increment btw

I forgot to add that if somehow red gets his queen inside blue's position, blue's lost.

Btw, I didn't even read your answer before answering so I don't think I could copy.

As far as I can remember, jbolea won that game. 

This is just trivially a forced win for blue though...

Solution:

a) Step 1: Bxe8. Looks very dumb because doesn't make sense to remove red's blocker. 

Step 2: Bxb5! even a 2500 with a couple of brain cells knows that my bishop can't be taken because is game over, and i knew who blue was so i was 100% sure i could get away with it.

If blue moves the bishop away, i would find the way to chase him anyway.

Bxb5 can be hard to expect but is my only chance to get something from this position.

So i picked 6 free points and blue's king is not safe anymore.

I also have the chance to keep my own bishop on b5 and allow him to make progress, but why should I?

b) Why giving a couple of checks to gain some time could be bad? The problem is that i can take on e8 without the risk of red moving his queen away and losing my bishop.

I saw the idea a few moves before but i was waiting for the check to play it.

Pushing e4 and put the rook behind was what i was thinking as well. And is not clear the right moment for me to go against blue.

c) If i dont do anything against blue he has very good chances, my bishop being on light squares helps a lot, otherwise he will keep his bishop forever.

I think the player with the most practical chances is red. You can dance with the queen all over the board making threats. My bishop needs to guard e8 and it will be very dangerous for blue in the long diagonal.

Another thing to consider is that red can't mate blue sacrificing his queen because after bishop takes queen we both get 55 points but im going to take his remaining pawn and get 56, unless his king gets to close and i need to give my 5 point bishop to take his new queen. And most likely he will get double checks before that so everything i said works out winning for him.

Solution is clearly rewind time, let green get back a bunch of pieces then mate one of the other players entering a losing 1v1 vs green resulting in an easy win.

Cool study. My idea was actually to go for e4 and Rd4 eventually. I didn't know what I would go for once red blockades the advanced pawn with his king on a dark square but thought I'd jump that hurdle when I got there. Before I went on this somewhat desperate attempt, I figured I had time to check red around just to get an idea if green was going to use the bishop in tangent with my rook to check red a bit and maybe I get a double check or two.

I missed Bxp because I just didn't think it was possible but it turns out it is sustainable though it makes things very difficult for blue/green. During the game I actually thought green had the most winning chances but once green takes blue's pawn and bishop I agree with rojitto that it looks advantageous to red because of the vulnerable kings, the flexibility of the queen, and the fact that there are not checks on the red king as long as it stays on the dark squares. I agree that green should go for capturing blue's bishop but perhaps not the pawn -- a tricky maneuver but definitely possible to cement the point lead. 

Managing to trade the bishops without taking the pawn is just amazing, i didnt even consider that chance. It gives more freedom to bg, at one point in the game i could easily get distracted and pin myself on the h file, allowing red to promote. Keeping the pawn definitely decreases the blunder chance.

So basically my answer to the question is completely opposite to the solution. Goes to show that I suck at this game

Taking the pawn on e8 and trading the bishops just throws the game to red