Chess.com's Weekly Study: January 17th 2016

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.

A. Maksimovskikh, 1987

Enjoy!

Fun!

Thanks Daniel. One wrong move for me, but yes a good challenge & fun

Good challenge..thnx

I'm sort of surprised that I got it right without errors. Active moves ftw!

cool!!

Next weekly study:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/endgames/chess-com-s-weekly-study-january-24th-2016

I love endgames studies where the knight and bishop conspire to not only limit the movement of the king but drive him into a fork.  The last three moves are inspired.

Much better than the daily puzzles.  Keep on postin'.

nice

In an actual game, the alternative solution would be Black's best practical chance, since White might mess up the B+N mate. But the move in the original solution, although it gets Black mated in half as many moves, is more exciting, because Black gets to have a new queen for a while.

(Original line, mate in 19 for White. Alternative defense by Black, mate in 37 for White.)

Black should have won. Nf7+ Kd4 is better for black. If Bf7+ Kxc4. Nxd6+ Kd3. There is no chance that white can stop black getting Queen. King & Q vs King, Bishop, and Knight - Black should win.

Actually, 4...Bc5 is a quicker path to winning the pawn but not in the overall scheme of things.  I would have suspected this move led to a quicker mate as well, but the Shredder endgame database, the ultimate arbiter of the position, gives mate in 33 in both cases.

From the starting position, White can mate in 37 moves or less against any defense.

Hello Mr. Olsson:

Learning a bit more about endgames in general and endgame studies in particular would be helpful.  Also, please examine Post #10 and try to solve it.  You will find that Nf7+ Kd4 is not better for Black even if it appears so on the surface.

Best,
Bob

really good puzzle

Bob - "please examine Post #10 and try to solve it". I did. I palyed out the sequence suggested. I find this particular endgame biased, as only White has any option to win here based on Black making wrong moves.

Best

Rob.

White does not need any wrong moves by Black to win.

Hello Mr. Olsson:

In Bob Baker's Post #17 he used a 7-piece database, so you can take his statement to the bank.

I think you misunderstand endgame studies and their purpose, with is primarily artistic in nature but can also be quite instructive in how pieces cooperate in unique ways to achieve a win.

If you think studies are biased for White because the challenge is ether for White to win or draw, I guess they are; that is just the nature of the beast. However, that does not mean Black makes less than accurate moves; in fact, studies assume the best move for Black to thwart White's intentions.  Even lesser moves for Black, as you will see below, still mean a win for White, but they are not the main variation.

Endgame studies have always been part of chess dating back to the 9th century and an early form of the game known as Shatranj.  For more on studies click here for the Wikipedia entry.

Regards,
Bob

I checked the position using the tablebases. For the curious, here is the distance to mate for Black's possible first moves.

Kd4 36

Ke4 31

Kf6 19

Kf5 18

Kf4 16

Ke6 15