Politicalmusic's Daily Endgame Puzzle: August 27, 2009

Submitted by Politicalmusic on Wed, 08/26/2009 at 11:19pm.

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Endgame Puzzle: August 27, 2009

"If you like the puzzles . . . track me :-)."

These are not your typical endgame puzzles

Can you name this great endgame player?

Hint: Israel's Highest Ranked GM.  Eight highest ranked chess player in the world.  

Quote: "My opinion is probably too radical, but I have no illusion about the
complete incompetence of FIDE and its unwillingness to work"

*Disclaimer - Some of the problems have multiple solutions.  However, I will give the solution that I feel is an easier pattern to recognize or better technique.  Further, depending on the level of difficulty, sometimes I will not give the optimal response to try to imitate human play.  If you click the move list and solution, sometimes I will insert alternate moves and explanations (check and see).  I welcome discussion and feel free to ask or answer a person's question on the message boards!  I would highly recommend to practice the problems at a board too!  Unfortunately, all of the puzzles before july 13, 2009 were deleted by chess.com.  I believe some forum topics expire at some point.  I started the blog july 13, 2009 and you can check out older problems through the links below.*

 

Hope you enjoy!

Pete

Level:  Easy

"Trebuchet"

Level:  Intermediate

"Pawns"


Level:  Difficult
"Queen v. Two Pawns"

 

The Man Himself

Musical Dedication: Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen

Play Like Him

The Whole Game


Older Puzzles
"Go Back through them . . . I promise it's worth it"

JULY

August

 

Comments:

by Escapest_Pawn - 2 months ago
MISSOULA,MT United States
Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 732
by Escapest_Pawn - 2 months ago
MISSOULA,MT United States
Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 732

To dragondella's humble "please explain",  I should say that "I hate these things, I am no good at them, and I want to die incompetent".  However, the idea is that bishop pawns on the 7th tend to draw, (depending on location of kings etc) as the "loser" can force a stalemate.  Such prevents white from whacking the h first.

A good link for experimenting is:

http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en

Will attempt to demo in following post

edit: note "following post"s are above, not below, on blogs.

by OBIT - 2 months ago
Atlanta United States
Member Since: Jun 2009
Member Points: 75

For puzzle #2, 1. a6 also wins easily: (a) 1...b6 2. cxb6 axb6 3. a7; (b) 1...bxa6 2. bxa6 (2. b6 works as well) Kc8 3. Kc6 Kb8 4. Kd7 Ka8 5. c6 Kb8 6. c7+; (c) 1...Kc8 2. axb7+ Kxb7 3. Kd7.

 

Also, I have to agree the Q vs 2P ending is flawed.  There are a ton of ways to win this.  Now, that's not to say there aren't also a ton of ways to blow it.  On move 3, for example, innocent little moves like 3. Qxh5?, 3. Qh4?, 3. Qe4?, and 3. Qd1+? throw away the win.

by joeybob39y - 2 months ago
Guilderland, New York United States
Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 39
good puzzles
by joeybob39y - 2 months ago
Guilderland, New York United States
Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 39

thats gelfand

by SCUprodigy13 - 2 months ago
Santa Clara United States
Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 63

nice work political music

by dragondelta - 2 months ago
United Kingdom
Member Since: Aug 2009
Member Points: 3

can someone explain the queen vs two pawns puzzle? thanks

by Fonix - 2 months ago
Buffalo, New York United States
Member Since: Sep 2008
Member Points: 1133

avneet said

"boris Gelfand's pic" 


Tell me about it. It looks like he is trying really hard to take a crap. 

by TheDarkKnite - 2 months ago
Nottingham United Kingdom
Member Since: Aug 2009
Member Points: 34

God the interview mexico! mexico mexic, God! I mean Mexico what the hell is plain about Mexico!

by Fonix - 3 months ago
Buffalo, New York United States
Member Since: Sep 2008
Member Points: 1133

Geeze, the guy in the Gelfand interview asked some awfully dumb questions. "Hey Boris, soo like, what just happened? O.K. Soo like, how did you feel about that?" ha. I could rock that job twice over.

Excellent work politicalmusic. I am new to tracking you but I simply love the material you post. 

by PawnInTheGame - 3 months ago
Warsaw Poland
Member Since: May 2008
Member Points: 320

god save the queen! yeah!!

by h777 - 3 months ago
Vancouver Canada
Member Since: Nov 2008
Member Points: 7745

good puzzles

by Nabeal - 3 months ago
Peshawar Pakistan
Member Since: May 2009
Member Points: 6464

Testing Testing Testing

by marvellosity - 3 months ago
Portsmouth United Kingdom
Member Since: May 2009
Member Points: 1431

Q vs 2p puzzle isn't good. There are so many ways to win, I gave up finding the optimal solution although I could win it in my sleep.

by Politicalmusic - 3 months ago
Alabama United States
Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 2457

lol

by avneet - 3 months ago
Delhi India
Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 715

boris Gelfand's pic

 

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