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Black to Play

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

Black is not in the best situation here. How should Black prepare a defense so as not to lose this endgame?


Solution:

This was a bit of a test of your alertness. There are several examples of world class grandmaster Sammy Reshevsky falling into this type of rescue by a lost opponent. The key is to always be on the alert for stalemates: Notice how the rook is immune from capture because of the stalemate, but not taking it gives the same result. Of course, Black has to seize the opportunity or lose: 1...Rf3+ 2.Ke2 [2.Kg2 Rxg3+ 3.Kf2 Rb3] 2...Rxg3 3.Rxf5+ Kxh4 4.Rf8 Kg4 5.f5 Rb3 6.f6 Kf5 7.f7 Kf6 drawn. By the way, this try for Black doesn’t work: 1...Ra2+ 2.Kg1 Rd2 [2...Kg4 3.Rg6+ Kf3 4.h5 Rg2+ 5.Kh1] 3.Rf8 Rc2 4.Rg8 Rc5 5.Rg5+ Kh6 6.Kg2 Rd5 7.Kh3 Rc5 8.h5 Ra5 9.Kh4 Rc5 10.Rg6+ Kh7 11.Kg5 and White wins.

 

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.


 

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