A challenging chess problem for strong players!
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- We are looking at a very hard and complex position but white can win this with brilliant play!
This study was composed by Vasily Smyslov in 2005.
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Excellent study... lot of learnings... Thank you very much
There's an important line that you missed here, if black plays 2... Kh1 then we play a waiting move with the bishop, e.g. 3. Ba6. We allow the promotion, and mate immediately with 4. Bb7 and 5. Bxg2# unless black underpromotes to a Knight. In that case we play 4. Kg3.
Now in response to either 4. Nxe2+ or 4. Nf3 we play Kf2 and the finish is similar to the version you showed. And if 4... Nh3 then 5. Bb2#
Great puzzle!
How consoling that the best computer software in the World is not a match for a mere human
I sincerely wish you were right, but you couldn't be further from the truth unfortunately 😢. Against the best computer software, humans always loose except for some percent of matches drawn for the best of our species (or if you copy a 100% known game for deterministic engines).
The best computer software solves this position with no trouble, mainly because the best computer software will have access to a six piece tablebase, which will reveal the winning moves immediately. Now, I can understand why Stockfish has trouble solving it, as the tablebase gives the starting position as a mate in 37, probably too much for the Stockfish engine.
But someone (I mean human) develop this quest
I am on a roll today, solving all 4 of your puzzles that I tried, but this was by far the hardest and I didn't really play out the Underpromotion variations at the end until we go to that part. I was torn between C4 and D5 for like an hour, so I would have timed out. I was trying to use C4 for a checkmate and I finally realized how good it was to have the e2 space protected by the Bishop.
I did find the first move the second one was a nice surprise, so was the final endgame with Bishop against knight.
The former world champion Smyslov made such interesting studies.
That is the most convoluted position I've seen you post.
After noticing the time length of this study [12.38], I realized that there was NO WAY that I was going to attempt to solve it. Why beat my head against the wall by making thousands of random, errant moves? So, I just sat back and enjoyed the video …
I was duly rewarded for my discretion!
Important variation that you missed (which I initially thought was the right one): 1. Nc3 g2; 2.Ne2 g1N; 3. Kg3 N:e2; 4. Kf2 and we have a similar position to the one at the end with the exception that this is a draw: White can not get away from black's checks because after 4. ... Nc3; the knight covers important square b1. If initially white's bishop was, say, on b3, this would be a winning variation as well
I put this into Stockfish and it was only after Kf2 that it dawned on it that this was lost from the beginning. Crazy how it can't see a mate in 7 - usually it spots crazy stuff like mate in 17
Nice. Must be the only situation where there is a mate with only one bishop !
Excellent!!
At 6:52, if black moves its king to h1, what do you do?
Bishop d5. Blacks only move is Pawn G1 … Checkmate… or am I missing something?
Bishop to d5 is stalemate !! So maybe it's a draw
The key is that the black king can't move anymore, so we will improve our pieces placement and prepare the mate in g7 after black promotes:
1.- Kh1;Ba6
2.- g1=Q;Bb7+
3.- Qg2+;Bg2#
If the black don't promote to a Q but a Knight:
2.- g1=N+; Kg3 and seems to be the same than at 7:21 but with our Knight in e2 rather than c3, which seems better, and our bishop in a6, which also seems to be a better square. Black has to move their knight and there are three posibilities:
3.- Nh3;Bb7# (as our knight is in e2 and controls g1)
3.- Ne2+; Kf2 (which seems to be the same position we have seen at 8:18 but without our white knight and our bishop now in a6, which seems to be a better position for the bishop, the black knight has to move somewhere but it's not posible to stop the threat of Bb7+.)
3.- Nf3;Kf2 (and is the same than at 11:51, black has to move the knight again and he doesn't have checks. He will move, and we will go Bb7+, he can block with the knight and we give checkmate with bishop taking the knight wherever it blocked)
Thank you.
it looks pretty easy. N c3 and subsequently winning both pawns. Journey after it is tricky and difficult. Thanks
Knight and Bishop mates are so much work, I prefer to just settle for the draw.
excellent composition by Smyslov, by the way Fischer considered Smyslov as his most dangerous opponent.
This problem is a really hard one! Many options don’t work.
Yeah but how impressed are you by me finding absolutely none of those moves out? 😂
(@5:50) Instead of Bc6, you have Bh1! forcing black into zugzwang! Black must play Kf2, then white just grabs the pawn with Kxh2. Now a bishop and knight can force a checkmate.
Very difficult, a true World Champion's study!
Show just how expansive chess really is.
Found it! 😊 At least the main moves, didn't check every variant!
I got Nc3 and that was about it. Wow this one was hard.
I realized pretty quickly that anything other than Nc3 couldn't be winning but I wasn't able to see the win after ...c2 and would likely have thrown the game away with Ne2.
Edit: I doubt I would have *ever* found Kf2 in response to ...Ne2.
A gun toting advertisement will cost you.
1:22 Losing in the meaning of we failed to win and just got a draw? :)
Losing, as in, not solving the puzzle.
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I saw the first move, and then I floundered.😂
Same here. I saw the need to get the knight to e2, but missed all the complications that arise after that . . . Very nice but hard puzzle!
Wow!
the missed win stockfish was talking about:
hint for author: besides inaccuracies, you missed several interesting variants, which make this study more interesting. i recommend redo this video.
1.Nc3 Kg1
( 1...g2 2.Bc4 Kg1
( 2...g1=N+ 3.Kg3 Ne2+ 4.Kf2 Nxc3 5.Kf1 Ne4 6.Bd3 Ng3+
( 6...Nf2 7.Be2 )
( 6...Ng5 7.Be2 )
( 6...Nf6 7.Be2 )
( 6...Nc5 7.Be2 )
( 6...Nc3 7.Bc2 )
( 6...Nd2+ 7.Kf2 Nf3 8.Ba6 )
7.Kf2 Ne4+ 8.Bxe4# )
3.Ne2+ Kf2
( 3...Kh1 4.Ba6 g1=N+ 5.Kg3 Nxe2+ 6.Kf2 Nd4 7.Bb7+ )
4.Kxh2 )
2.Ne2+ Kh1
( 2...Kf1 3.Nxg3+ Kg1 4.Bd5 )
( 2...Kf2 3.Nxg3 Kg1 4.Bd5 )
3.Bd5+ g2 4.Bxg2# *
At 11:28 it is said that white has checkmate by moving bishop to e4 but what stops black knight from taking the bishop (and putting white in check)?
Black has to move first and he can only move his knight (and drop the protection of e4) so wherever he puts it white has Be4 and checkmate after that.
This is rich! I stumbled every step!
Zugzwang is nasty
I saw it, and I still don't understand it....
This one is way beyond me
I don't think that Magnus Carlson could have solved this.
U dumb
I got it under the minute, but would have never search for a win overboard - would have just taken the draw. Looking now - no, I did not see all the lines :), amazing
!!