Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Attica! Attica!

The other day I posted the game Morozevich vs Vachier-Lagrave, Biel 2009. That game featured a rook trapped in prison behind its own pawns and king. Today I was looking at New In Chess 6/2015 and saw a new composition that Timman has just published. This problem also features a trapped piece, and it seems that freeing that piece is the key to winning the game.

Timman 2015 (after Simkhovitch)
White to play and win
4q3/4P3/4P3/4k1p1/p3BbP1/PpP2P2/1P6/QK3R2 w - - 0 1

Solution below.
I'm only going to publish the main line given by Timman, and a few of his comments. That should constitute fair use.

It's pretty how the queen on a1 has "changed colours," as Timman puts it. Turns out the win wasn't just about a breakout, but about putting someone else in jail! Incidentally, I imagine Stockfish would solve this eventually, but it took some prodding for it to get to the solution when I ran a quick check.

No comments:

Post a Comment