[Event "Sachova Skladba Magazine 2011-12"] [Site "?"] [Date "2011.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "White to move and win"] [Black "Ladislav Salai, Jr."] [Result "*"] [Annotator "Monokroussos,Dennis"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "4K1k1/8/1p5p/1Pp3b1/8/1P3P2/P1B2P2/8 w - - 0 1"] [PlyCount "0"] [EventDate "2024.03.17"] {White to move and win. (See the next entry for the solution.)} * [Event "Sachova Skladba Magazine 2011-12"] [Site "?"] [Date "2011.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "White to move and win"] [Black "Ladislav Salai, Jr."] [Result "*"] [Annotator "Monokroussos,Dennis"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "4K1k1/8/1p5p/1Pp3b1/8/1P3P2/P1B2P2/8 w - - 0 1"] [PlyCount "21"] [EventDate "2024.03.17"] {[%evp 0,21,126,81,71,61,66,90,97,69,70,126,213,211,205,205,228,239,237,228,692,1121,1121,1134] To solve this, you need to figure out two things. First, the nice entombing of Black's bishop on a5 - that's the (relatively) easy part. The second thing is to figure out how to win once that is accomplished, and it takes some thinking about the resulting ending to figure out that White's first move is absolutely necessary.} 1. f4 $3 (1. Kd7 $2 Bd2 2. Kc6 Ba5 3. b4 cxb4 4. Bb3+ {The bishop trap has been effected; now the battle takes place on the kingside.} Kg7 5. Kd5 Kf6 6. Ke4 h5 7. Kf4 Kg6 8. Ke5 h4 9. Kf4 Kh5 $22 $11 {It's a mutual zugzwang. Black to move loses, but White to move necessitates moving the bishop - king moves would lose - and that lets Black's bishop out of its cage. For example:} 10. Bf7+ Kh6 11. Kg4 b3 12. Bxb3 h3 13. Kxh3 Kg5 $11 {Black's king will park itself on f4 or f6 and then move the bishop to and fro from a5 and back again. White can only stop that mechanical plan by bringing the king to c6, but then Black's king can shuttle to e5 and back to f4/f6 until White's king interferes with it, whereupon the bishop shuttle resumes service.}) 1... Bxf4 2. Kd7 Bd2 3. Kc6 Ba5 4. b4 $1 cxb4 5. Bb3+ Kg7 6. Kd5 Kf6 7. Ke4 {There won't be any mutual zugzwang this time. White can deal with the h-pawn easily enough, and one f-pawn will be suffice for the win.} h5 (7... Kg5 8. Ke5 $1 h5 9. f4+ Kh6 (9... Kg4 10. f5 h4 11. f6 h3 12. f7 h2 13. f8=Q (13. Bd5 b3 14. f8=Q $18 {is the simple, human way to win.}) 13... h1=Q 14. Be6+ Kg5 15. Qf4+ Kg6 16. Bf7+ Kg7 17. Qf6+ Kf8 18. Be6+ Ke8 19. Qf7+ Kd8 20. Qd7#) 10. f5 Kg7 11. f6+ Kf8 12. Kf5 h4 13. Kg4 $18 {White can win with the f-pawn without moving his bishop--Black's bishop will remain in its grave to the end.}) 8. Kf4 Kg6 9. Ke5 $1 h4 10. Kf4 Kh5 {This is the position after 9...Kh5 in the 1.Kd7? line, except that White has unburdened himself of the f3 pawn. As a result, he has a move:} 11. f3 $22 $18 {Now it's Black who is in zugzwang. He must lose the pawn, and White will win the resulting ending without difficulty.} *