1. Standard membermchill
    Cryptic
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    29 Dec '22 03:542 edits
    Below is exercise #235 from Woodpecker. The book gives: 24. d5 Kb6 25. Be3+ c5 26. Qd8 Qc7 27. Qxg8 + -

    Question: Why doesn't black simply play 24... Kd7 here instead of wandering to the open space on the queen side?

    My apologies for my inability to post a diagram here - try as I might, I've not been able to decipher this FEN stuff! 😕

    YouTube
  2. SubscriberRagwort
    Senecio Jacobaea
    Yorkshire
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    29 Dec '22 13:57
    The solution given


    I looked at 1... Kd7 2. f6 with the idea of Bf5+ but it doesn't work so I wonder if Re6 is necessary to bolster f6 first. It's not clear to me.
  3. SubscriberPaul Leggett
    Chess Librarian
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    08 Jan '23 01:144 edits
    I played around with this on Chessbase- it's Steinitz-Dufresne 1874.

    My impression was that ...Kd7 (walking into the teeth of the White pieces) would be suicide, but Dragon 3.1 and Stockfish 15.1 both think that it is only very slightly worse than ...Kb6.

    Basically, after 24. ... Kb6 25. Re6!, Black is in zugzwang. He has no moves, and White is threatening to simply roll down the kingside.

    A neat point is that 25. Re6 blocks the Black queen attack on the d5 pawn, which means that White can maintain the d5 pawn, clamping down on the central light squares, and bottling Black up rather well. The rook also adds a third attack to the f6 and h6 squares, guaranteeing that the Ng8 is stuck in place.

  4. SubscriberRagwort
    Senecio Jacobaea
    Yorkshire
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    09 Jan '23 17:082 edits
    Hi Paul, good post - plenty to work through there.

    I have also checked out the validity of my line from my post above, but first, for the sake of completeness I'll show the mate if Kxd5.



    Now to have a further look at Kd7 Re6 with the idea of f6 and Bf5



    So onto the line in Pauls analysis (Kd7 Re6 Bf8)


    This analysis is not exhaustive and I hope not exhausting as I have stuck to lines I understand rather the more esoteric lines the engine tries to in effort to wriggle out of loss.

    I often wonder how much a player like Steinitz would have seen at the time and how much he might leave to chance on seeing that he had good lines after d5+. It also strikes me that to see much more than the mate after Kxd5 and Steinitz's piece win that is the solution, in the 40 secs the video in the OP gives is asking a bit much.
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