An old puzzle by H.F.Blandford.

From the book 'Modern end-game studies for the chess player' by Bouwmeester (1959).

White to play and win, how do you stop the f2 pawn from Queening?

A really amazing puzzle, notes:

• if 2....Kb6 then 3.Rb5+ followed by Rb1.
• if 3....Kxc5 then Be3 + wins the f2 pawn and the game.
  
• if 3....f1 = Q then 4.Bf8++ is mate.
• if 4....Kxf6 then 5.Rc8 followed by Rf8 wins the f2 pawn. 

I don't get the Kxc5 Be3 line. Kb4, or d5?

Nice puzzle.

If Kxc5 then Be3+ Kb4 Bxf2, then white queens the f pawn mate

i had to convert from descriptive notation to algebraic, sorry about the errors, i have edited them out now :-)

Very nice!

Shoot the bastard?

Is that the technical term Bill?

Can anyone explain to me why this happens like it does?  It just doesn't seem to make sense that the King would not take the rook at the first opportunity, nor does it seem that you have actually prevented the f2 pawn from promotion.

Wow amazing!

very nice puzzle

if kxc5 be3+ then kd5 bxf2 ke5... black has chance to win

after kxc5 Be3+ Kd5 Bxf2 Black is WON :-)