Can you draw this position?

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Vandarringa

Here's the puzzle: white to move and draw.  The puzzle's not perfect; I think there are two solutions.  Can you find them both?

Brasigringo

Looks like smothered mate for black with Nc2# and no way for white to prevent it.

ivandh

The first solution is to turn white's knights into black knights.

Casual_Joe

White plays Ka0 and avoids the smothered mate.

Casual_Joe

Ok, now I see it.  Nd1 avoids the smothered mate because the Black Knight is pinned.  White plays 2 Ne3 to cover the c2 square.  The day is saved!

Edit:  I think my lazy eye may have gotten the better of me in regard to seeing the Knight pinned to the King...

Vandarringa

Hint: it's a trick puzzle.  The solution is outside of the usual realm of chess thought.

TKACHS

If the pieces are willing to pose in the nude, I will draw them in this position.

chessgdt

I got it! Bribe the guy to accept the draw, or blackmail him. ;)

Casual_Joe

I can draw this position if I assume that I am Black.

M_Hassen

Here is the freehand solution:

Vandarringa

Wow, okay, so it's not TOO far outside the usual realms of chess thought...

 

If you found yourself in this position as white in a live chess game on this site, what would you do?

tjdiem

I would stall until I ran out of time, and claim a draw by insufficient material

chessgdt
tjdiem wrote:

I would stall until I ran out of time, and claim a draw by insufficient material

Black can still checkmate you, so its not a draw from insufficient material I think.

tjdiem

Oh well, I just took a random guess. :)

Vandarringa

That's the thing, I think it is a draw by insufficient material.  Of course it depends on the rulebook.  OTB at a tournament I don't think a TD would let that move fly, but how specific is, say, the USCF rulebook on this?  A King and Knight is insufficient mating material, so white's clock running out means a draw rather than a loss for white.  Any rule-savvy types out there?  Can white just run down the clock?  Or, even more audacious, can white simply claim a draw?

falcogrine

I'd force him to resign; he's over 5 points down.

Elubas

Well, black has sufficient material to mate, because in some cases his knight will deliver checkmate (once more, the one knight black has happens to be sufficient to checkmate his opponent), so you definitely can't claim a draw.

The irony is that in this situation white can't claim a draw, but if he had no pieces on the board (just king vs king and knight), he could. In this case the fact that white has more pieces means it is still possible for him to lose because his extra pieces can actually take squares away from his king.

emkcehc

i think i saw this on utube... puke on the board so he doesnt want to touch the knight and mate you... other wise it is not a draw... unless you meant to move the black king forward one square?

falcogrine

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/you-should-be-forced-to-resign

Vandarringa

falcogrine: Yeah, I saw that thread; that's what led me to come up with this little "puzzle". But I didn't find any answers about USCF rules there.