Magnificent Puzzles (6)

Submitted by Phobetor on Thu, 01/29/2009 at 8:47am.

There are many places where you can find simple tactical puzzles (for example Chess.com's Tactics Trainer or Daily Puzzle) or more complicated puzzles with highly unlikely positions, where the key move is a totally unexpected move. There are only few places however where you'll find puzzles which are complicated but yet simple. Puzzles with few pieces on the board, but with a very elegant solution. In the Magnificent Puzzles I'll try to entertain you with such puzzles.

Below is the sixth puzzle in the series, composed by Kricheli in 1984. This is a really tough one. White can't stop black's promotion, and after the inevitable trade for the rook for the pawn, it seems that black will always will the f3-pawn and the game... or won't he? Only one move saves the draw for white! Good luck!

» posted in Phobetor's Blog

| 1553 reads | 12 comments

Comments:

by ntusinski - 7 months ago
Ujsoły Poland

Member Since: Sep 2008
Member Points: 8

great puzzle:-)

by rumi99 - 8 months ago
Khulna Bangladesh

Member Since: Jan 2009
Member Points: 100

Fantastic!!

by apocalypse74 - 8 months ago
Israel

Member Since: Aug 2008
Member Points: 70

OMG this is butiful!

by Phobetor - 8 months ago
Eindhoven Netherlands

Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 1202

Nelso_125, your puzzles are nice too! I've seen the last one before though (the one where black mirrors white's moves) and there are actually three solutions. Besides your solution, there's also 1. d4 2. Qd3 3. Qf5 4. Qxc8#, and 1. c4 2. Qa4 3. Qc6 4. Qxc8# :)

by kerver73 - 8 months ago
Thessaloniki Greece

Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 1133

Very interesting,.... i agree with wetpaste.Rxb2 is the simple move and then the king just promotes the pawn...but he is lost due to Ke4.

So,the only move white has is Kh2!

by NQChien - 8 months ago
Hanoi Vietnam

Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 40

Ha, this is really tricky!

by wetpaste - 9 months ago
United States

Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 112

really tough.

1. Rxb2 Kxb2 2. Kh2 Kc3 3. Kh3 Kd4 4. Kg4 Ke4, and white is lost, zugzwang (thats the term right?).

However, could black still win if he promotes to rook? wait no, i forgot the whole point is black needs a piece stronger than a rook to win. Interesting puzzle, as it doesn't seem like the best try for white, but it is.