Sunday, April 02, 2006

 

He Who Promotes Last...

... laughs last?!

Black to Move


Here is a neat little position that came up in a blitz game. It starts out with Black's King at the corner of the square of the passed c pawn. Can Black win, or is this just a draw?
.....
....
...
..
.
It turns out yes, he can, as long as he is willing to sacrifice a pawn and not get overly upset that White gets to promote first:
50...Kg4! 51. c6 h3+ 52. Kg1 (no other square is better, and f1and then e1 opens the way for both Black pawns to promote) Kf3 53. c7 h2+ 54. Kh1 Kf2 55. c8=Q g2+ 56. Kxh2 g1=Q+ 57. Kh3 Qg3# 0-1

-=-=-=-=-

I seem to be reorganizing how I think about positions. This is my guess why I am scoring clearly worse this circle than last time around. I find that I am going through problems more slowly, turning them around a little differently now. Another thing I notice is that it's a little bit easier to calculate bad variations and reason them out.

I just finished the "Elimination of the Defense" section in TCT, Step 4. Although I think the problems are good in this section, it is kind of weak in its organization. They use the themes of threatening and capturing a defender, and they even show capturing a indirectly defending piece, which I thought was quite instructive. Unfortunately, other themes are thrown in, like positions where your not beating up on defense but rather achieving material gains via forks or sacrifices like decoy and deflection. I just organize information differently.

-=-=-=-=-

TCT Results

Circle 1Circle 2Circle 3Circle 4Circle 5Circle 6Circle 7
Step 197%99%99%100%r
Step 293%96%95%97%96%99%100%
Step 393%97%97%96%96%98%99%
Step 480%86%90%92%88%*
Step 574%77%83%87%



Comments:
nice tactic. what is an indirectly guarding piece?
 
I'll do my best to explain it, although you might ask a > 1800 player someday to get a better example. Personally I think of the Nimzo-Indian or variations of QGD with ...Bb4. Starting with 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 Black pins the Knight on c3 with a hanging Bishop. Black's b8 Knight could be viewed as indirectly guarding the b4 Bishop. This defense becomes a reality if Black pushes his d7 pawn early as then White's Queen can give check on a4.

If White gets in Bf4 and Black pushes or exchanges his c7 pawn before castling, White can capture the b8 Knight with Bxb8. This essentially forces Black to trade-down with ...Bxc3+, as Black's indirect defender has been captured and there is no other answer to the fork threat of Qa4+.
 
Another thing I notice is that it's a little bit easier to calculate bad variations and reason them out.

Sometimes I even calculate bad variations at lightning speed:)
 
Hehehe.... :-D
 
Thanks for the explanation. It is simalar to the Falkbeer countergambit in move 3 white can't play pawn x e5 due to the queen check which is this case is indirectly guarding the pawn.
 
Nice endgame problem. How long did you have left on the clock and how long did it take you to figure out the answer?

PS
 
That seems very similar, Tak. In that case threatening/capturing the Queen could weaken the e5 pawn.

Interesting question P.S. Before I was close to this position I thought... "if this idea doesn't work I can get a draw by repetition" and quickly moved into it, which left me over 1 minute. After about 30 seconds it seemed like a go and I played it. Right then I felt a bit excited and I knew that even if I screwed up my calculation, I would still get a good learning experience from looking at it later.
 
Interesting concern P.S. Just before I used Diablo 3 Gold kaufento be close to this location I believed... "if this idea does not work properly I'm able to get a sketch simply by repetition" and also quickly migrated with it, which usually quit me over 1 minute. Following about Thirty seconds the item appeared like an attempt i played this. Correct next, i sensed a bit energized i believed which even if We messed up my personal computation, I would personally get Diablo 3 itemsa good learning experience coming from taking a look at this later.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?