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Black to Play

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

This position arose with Smyslov to play against Bronstein at Groningen, 1946.What is the best way for Black to win here, which Black, btw, missed! Time to do better than the late world champion.


Rook and pawn endings are very tricky. The best move is 1... Ke5 Smyslov blundered with the “clever” 1... b2?? And the game continued: 2. Rxb2! Kg4 [or 2..Rh2+ 3. Kf3 Rxb2 Stalemate!—which he missed. Black can really blow it with 3... Rh3+ 4. Kg2 Rg3+ 5. Kf2 Kg4 6. Rb8 f3?? (Best is 6...Rf3+=) 7. Rg8+ winning the rook. 2. Rb5+ Kd4 3. Rb4+ Kc3 4. Rxf4 b2 5. Rf1 Kc2 and Black will queen the pawn with an easy win.

 


Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.

 

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