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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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Jean, your last paragraph is confusing. Do you mean black to play and draw (you believe); white to play and win (Prokes). Or how should we interpret this?
Jean, your last paragraph is confusing. Do you mean black to play and draw (you believe); white to play and win (Prokes). Or how should we interpret this?
In an endgame study it is not "White (Black) to play and win" or "White (Black) to play and draw", because by convention it is always White who moves first. That is why I have reversed the original Prokes position because otherwise it would have been "Black to play".
So it is simply "WIN" or "DRAW". In the diagram position it is "DRAW". (White to play, of course)
1.Kh1 draws. It is a well known fortress with rook and g pawn with the rook defending the 3rd rank. Very well done Jean. 1.Kf1 loses because the black queen (after the trade on d4) can either pick up the g pawn or the c pawn (depending on whether the white rook goes to the 3rd rank or stays on the 4th) ,with a tablebase win. If 1.Kh2 the black queen (after the trade on d4) can check on e5 and white can`t avoid the eventual loss of the c pawn with tablebase win for black.1.Kf2 will also lose the c pawn. Note that black always has to defend the d pawn before going pawn hunting or else white gets a tablebase draw if he wins it with check. Any non king move enables black to always pick up the c pawn eventually.
1.Kh1 draws. It is a well known fortress with rook and g pawn with the rook defending the 3rd rank. Very well done Jean. 1.Kf1 loses because the black queen (after the trade on d4) can either pick up the g pawn or the c pawn (depending on whether the white rook goes to the 3rd rank or stays on the 4th) ,with a tablebase win. If 1.Kh2 the black queen (after the trade on d4) can check on e5 and white can`t avoid the eventual loss of the c pawn with tablebase win for black.1.Kf2 will also lose the c pawn. Note that black always has to defend the d pawn before going pawn hunting or else white gets a tablebase draw if he wins it with check. Any non king move enables black to always pick up the c pawn eventually.
Congratulations Al! You got it all with extra points! Of course with engine help very few studies can resist, but in this case Houdini does not give all the answers right away. One must also consider tablebases.
What is interesting with the original Prokes study is that the "WIN" label is still correct, but with another solution that had not been found by the author! Only the original solution is refuted.
Thanks Michael. I retired from government life and have been a chess teacher for the last 5 years both in elementary French and English schools as well as personal one-on-one tutoring. I have recently developed an advanced chess course for players up to master level that has 331 strategical and 434 tactical chess positions ordered by difficulty. All have been checked by Houdini and are clearly the best moves in the position. The strategical positions cover every known concept of strategy and the tactical positions cover all known tactical motifs.
Al,
Is your advanced chess course for sale? I would definitely be interested in buying it if it is for sale.
I too teach chess privately in English and French. However, I have 24 years to go before I retire from the Public Service...
Thanks, Jordan
No matter how big and bad you are, when a two-year-old hands you a toy phone, you answer it.
Than you will get a mate there. Black Kd2 and Qe1.
I think that White are doomed with a pawn on c3. Black king comes around and a White fortress is ruined.
Then put your king on g3...? It's not as though black's pieces just teleport around to the ideal squares. Maybe it's losing, but you can't just say "Well, if you put your king on that square then black will just instantly put his king and queen on these squares and you lose."
Then put your king on g3...? It's not as though black's pieces just teleport around to the ideal squares. Maybe it's losing, but you can't just say "Well, if you put your king on that square then black will just instantly put his king and queen on these squares and you lose."
It is a better place for Black King on d2 than c4. Step by step King goes where it wants. White has too many headaches to care - a fortress and a c3-pawn.
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