White to Play and Win

Pete Tamburro on Oct 14, 2009

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White may appear to be in a bind here as Black is threatening to queen both his pawns and covering the checking square on e5, but there is a very useful winning strategy here worth knowing. See if you can find this best way to win.

Solution:

The lines that follow show the power of having mating threats. Even play over the variations off the main line as there are many great endgame lessons in every line. 1.Bd4 f2 [A merry chase ensues after 1...h2 2.Ba7+ Kxa7 3.Kc7 Ka6 (3...h1Q 4.b8Q+ Ka6 5.Qb6#) 4.b8Q Ka5 5.Kc6 Ka4 (5...Ne5+ 6.Qxe5+) 6.Kc5 Ka3 7.Qb4+ Ka2 8.Qd2+ Kb3 9.Qd3+ Kb2 10.Kb4 Ne3 (10...h1Q 11.Qd2+ Ka1 12.Ka3 Qb1 13.Qc3+ Qb2+ 14.Qxb2#) 11.Qc3+ Ka2 12.Qd2+ Ka1 13.Kb3 and mate is unstoppable.] 2.Ba7+ Kxa7 3.Kc7 Ka6 [3...f1Q 4.b8Q+ Ka6 5.Qb6#] 4.b8=Q Ka5 5.Qa8+ Kb4 6.Qf3 Kc5 7.Qxh3 [A really important move as after 7.Qf5+ Kd4 8.Qxg4+ Ke3 9.Qxh3+ Ke2 10.Qg4+ Kd2 11.Qf3 Ke1 12.Qg3 Ke2 White's king isn't close enough to help out and the queen can't let the king into f1 and g1 as it tends toward the classic bishop pawn on the seventh draw chess players know so well—have this picture in your mind: pawn on f2, White queen on e3 and Black moves his king from g1 to h1: the pawn can't be taken because of stalemate! ] 7...Kd5 8.Qh5+ Ke4 9.Qxg4+ Ke3 10.Qd1 and White wins the battle of the f1 square so his king can come over and help. This type of ending is not that uncommon and well worth knowing!

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.