I broke discipline yesterday and looked at Facebook for a while, lured there by Emil Sutovsky's statement about the Israeli Olympiad team on Twitter. Looking at Sutovsky's feed, I saw that he presented the following study by Hasek, with the comment:
Cute one from the Czechoslovak composer Hasek. White to play. The idea is clear - but how to make it work? Not obvious, and very aesthetically pleasing solution. Don't publish a solution, just leave a smile if you are sure you got it right.
Hasek, date unknown
White to play & draw
I saw the initial idea quickly, and then saw how it failed. I didn't figure it out on my own, I must confess, and needed a hint. Feel free to use a computer program on it, as Stockfish didn't help at all - the hint came from a commenter to the Facebook post, and then I had to figure out what he meant.
Warning: The title of the post may or may not be misleading.
Hints & solution below the fold in white font.
Hints in white font. Highlight text after hint to read them. Hints get progressively more revealing.
Hint 1: The solution involves counting rather than calculation.
Hint 2: In the initial position, if the Black queen were on h8, Black would win in all variations.
Hint 3: The key move to the solution is the THIRD move.
Hint 4: The solution is a self-stalemate.
Solution in white font:
1 Ng4+ hxg4
2 d4+ Ke6 (or any)
3 Rh1!! Qh8
4 Ke1 Qa8
5 Kf1 !a6+
5 Kg1
and Black's queen cannot get behind the white pawns without stalemating White. You just need to count that White can get his rook on h1 and his king on f1 BEFORE Black plays ...Qa6.
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