White to Play and Draw

Pete Tamburro on Oct 26, 2009

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We feel a little quirky this morning, so here's an interesting proposition from A.J. Roycroft, whose Test Tube Chess is a classic: find a way for White to salvage a draw here!

Solution

This requires some explanation! The idea on how to get the draw is actually two-fold. One part of the solution is stalemate. The other is perpetual check. Here we go:

1.c7 f5 [1...g5 2.c8=R Ka1 3.Rc2 Ng6 (3...Bc4 4.Rc1+ Ka2 5.Ra1+ Kb3 6.Ra3+ Kb4 7.Ra4+ Kb5 8.Rb4+ Kc6 9.Rxc4+ Kd7 10.Rc7+ Ke6 11.Rxe7+ and the king is endlessly chased by the rook as there is no haven from the checks) 4.Rc1+ Bb1 5.Rxb1+ which allows for stalemate; 1...Ka1 2.c8R b1=Q 3.Rc2 g5 stalemate as the rook is pinned] 2.c8Q Bc3 3.Qxf5+ Ka1 4.Qb1+ and White will be stalemated. An ingenious conception by Roycroft that makes you wonder how he sat down and figured out how to create this! The human mind is so intriguing in this regard. I had fun putting this on my chess engine. It could not come to terms with this being a draw and yet there you have the solution. Sometimes an impossibly difficult problem (yet with just one White pawn moving!) needs to be looked at and appreciated like a work of art rather than how hard it is. When I first looked at the solution, I just went, "Wow!" He did others like this, too. So grab yourself a King and pawn and try to create one yourself!

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.