Great endgame study

5 years ago · Quote · #1
IM pfren

A superb study by Mark Liburkin. White to play and win.
5 years ago · Quote · #2
IM pfren

The study is by the great Russian composer Mark Savelevich Liburkin (1910-1953), also known as 'The Chess Poet". First published in Wieczerniaja Moskwa 1932.
5 years ago · Quote · #3
FlowerFlowers

boggles my simple mind...
5 years ago · Quote · #4
IM pfren

FlowerFlowers wrote:

boggles my simple mind...

Welcome to the club. This stuff is mind-boggling, even for very strong players. The mechanism of defense against the mating threats is rather staightfoward, but the concept with the three consecutive underpromotions (to knight, bishop and rook respectively) is simply stunning. One of the very finest pieces of chess art ever made.
5 years ago · Quote · #5
KingRivfader

That was fun! I really like puzzles/situations that require underpromotions.
5 years ago · Quote · #6
bjazz

Wow. I had to think for a while to understand why the third underpromotion had to be a rook. Great stuff. Is this what GM's actually do in their heads OTB, or are these studies just a technical showoff?
5 years ago · Quote · #7
IM pfren

No, not OTB, it's composed position.
5 years ago · Quote · #8
NM Splane

The second and third underpromotions are forced. In both cases promoting to a queen draws after 1 ... c1/Q+ 2. Nxc1 Kxc4+ 3. Qxe5 stalemate.
5 years ago · Quote · #9
IM pfren

The first too- else white is mated...

Not really important, but Black should play ...Kc4+ before ...c1=Q+, else white does not take on e5 and wins.
5 years ago · Quote · #10
CerebralAssassin

lol....that's awesome!

the bishop/rook underpromotions I don't get though

EDit: nvm...already explained
5 years ago · Quote · #11
doubledouble

Unbelievable. Positions like this are the reason I love playing chess.
5 years ago · Quote · #12
slayerage

Splane wrote:

The second and third underpromotions are forced. In both cases promoting to a queen draws after 1 ... c1/Q+ 2. Nxc1 Kxc4I'+ 3. Qxe5 stalemate.

I'm afraid I don't see for what reason Qxe5 is a necessary move in that line (3. Kb2), the move list shows a more accurate order...
This was a most ridiculous study. Incredible, really.

Edit: pfren already said this, my bad. Would rather leave what I have than it just leave the ever ambiguous [COMMENT DELETED]
5 years ago · Quote · #13
asmaaa

Nice one :) I solved it but I has headache now in my head ! ^_^
5 years ago · Quote · #14
EP_Chess

I followed this to the very end. I like the overall idea of the study, I could never come up with a study such as this, but each move is easy to find. I like this study a lot. Thanks for sharing it.
4 years ago · Quote · #15
MartinBrookes

That was lovely. Thanks for sharing it. Horribly tough.
4 years ago · Quote · #16
CHCL

Nice puzzle. Couldn't solve it, but the under-promotions were stunning.
4 years ago · Quote · #17
bankoscarpa

AMAZING!!! I love this so much. I think the idea of under-promotion is pure beauty. Thank you pfren for this wonderful post. I absolutely love it.
4 years ago · Quote · #18
SpeakMyLanguage

vERY COOL!
4 years ago · Quote · #19
yistate

I spent two whole minutes thinking why doesnt black play K*P+ after 14...Bf6???

And then it dawns on me that its white's move.
3 years ago · Quote · #20
hazeleyes

Tough. I took 30min on this monster. More please.