Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The twelve puzzles of Xmas


White to play and draw

4 comments:

Neill Cooper said...

Looks a bit simpler than some of the earlier ones

5 Bf3+ Qxf3 Stalemate

Neill

Ted Teodoro said...

this wasn't easy at all. the last two moves of the bishop are very beautiful. on the other hand, i found that the bishop maneuver Bc8 - Bb7 didn't work cuz of Kc6.

ejh said...

OK. This is from Gerald Abrahams, The Chess Mind (Penguin, 1951) which is a great, great chess book that I would hope will one day be republished. The puzzle is on page 69 and the winning line is 1. Bh7 Kxd5 2. Bf5 h2 3. Bc8 Kc6 4.Bg4 h1=Q 5.Bf3+ Qxf3 with the stalemate Neill showed us above.

Abrahams only tells us that it's by a "modern Russian composer": if anybody has fuller details, by all means post them.

Ted Teodoro said...

I thought that instead of 3. Bc8 white could also play 3.Bg4 and still draw. If the black king approaches via 3...Ke4, then 4.Bc8 and white can draw but not via stalemate.