Chess.com's Weekly Study: April 10th 2016

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DailyFun

Hello Chess.com!

Starting with 2016, we will be posting a Weekly Study, courtesy of Yochanan Afek, Grandmaster for composing endgame studies. These challenging positions are designed to stimulate (and improve upon!) your creativity, depth of calculation, pattern recognition and pure imagination.

Y. Afek, 2007

Enjoy!

adumbrate

Wow

chessbyaidan

Nice.

alain978

Beautiful zugswang !

DailyFun

The 17th's puzzle is up!

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/chess-com-s-weekly-study-april-17th-2016

friendless

What a phenomenal imagination to create positions like this - very impressive! Laughing

n9531l

A very pretty finish, but Black could have been a bad sport and spoiled it. After 5.Rg2+, with Kf4 instead of Kh4 Black could have pushed the mate out four moves (mate in 21 instead of mate in 17) and avoided the zugzwang finish, according to the 6-man tablebases.

fightingbob
n9531l wrote:

A very pretty finish, but Black could have been a bad sport and spoiled it. After 5.Rg2+, with Kf4 instead of Kh4 Black could have pushed the mate out four moves (mate in 21 instead of mate in 17) and avoided the zugzwang finish, according to the 6-man tablebases.

The position that holds the pawn after 5...Kf4 is easier to see -- it was for me, at least -- and not nearly as attractive as the main line.  Unfortunately, as is the way with a secondary line in so many endgame studies, it would preferable in a real game because 1) play to mate is longer, and 2) the elimination of the Black rook is more difficult and gives White more chances to go wrong.