Solution to Problem # 54

This position is a 1921 Reti construction. As Steve Giddins says in his 101 Chess Endgame Tips, "We are all taught at an early age that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. However, there are some important differences between chessboard geometry and its Euclidean equivalent. White draws this hopeless-looking position because the king march Kg7-f6-e5-f4-g3-h2 does not take any more moves than the straight route Kh7-h6-h5-h4-h3-h2. By using the former route, however, the white king is able to threaten to queen his own pawn, and thereby gain vital tempi."

The game proceeds 1.Kg7 h4 2.Kf6 Kb6 (2...h3 3.Ke6 Kb6 4.Kd6 draws) 3.Ke5 Kxc6 4.Kf4 and White saves the draw.

Solution to Problem # 53

This position is taken from a Dennis Monkroussos video at the chessvideos.tv site.

Black wins beautifully with 1...Bb7 2.Rg1 Ng4 3.f4 (if 3.dxc5 Nxh2 4.f4 Nf3+ 5.Kf2 Nxg1, followed by the advance of the h-pawn) 3...Nxe3 4.Qd2 Nbc2+ 5.Kf2 Ng4#. A very unique mate!

Solution to Problem # 52

This beautiful problem comes from the pattern recognition video at the chessvideos.tv site.

White wins with 1.Rxe4! dxe4 2.Be5+ Bxe5 3.Rxf5 Qxf5 4.Qh6#.

Solution to Problem # 51

This position is from week 4 of the 2008 USCL season. It's IM Lev Milman of Carolina as White, and GM Alex Shabalov of New York as Black. Milman won beautifully with 1.h4!, at which point Shabalov resigned. Why? 1...gxh4 (forced) 2.g5+ Kh5 3.Kf5! Rf2+ (forced) 4.Bf4 and Rh7 mate is unavoidable. Thanks to USCL founder Greg Shahade for presenting this game at www.chessvideos.tv.

Solution to Problem # 50

Additional commentary about this game and about back rank mates can be found at this Chessville article by IM Igor Khmelnitsky.

White wins with the dramatic 1.Nf5. Khmelnitsky writes:
"After 1…exf5 2.Qxc8+ Nxc8 and, suddenly, the Rook on e1 has its path to e8 cleared – like magic, all three pieces (Ne3,Pe6,Ne7) have vanished and the defender (Rc8) is gone as well! 3.Re8#. All other Black responses would lead to losing a ton of material."

Solution to Problem # 49

This position is taken from the game Penrose-Popov 1963, in the ChessBase DVD PowerPlay3: Pawn Storm, by GM Daniel King.

Although the game did not follow this course, King shows the following beautiful win for White:

1.Rxg7! Kxg7 2.Qg4+ Kh8 3.Qh4 f5 4.exf6 Rf7 5.Qxh6+ Kg8 6.Bh7+ Rxh7 7.Qg6+ Kf8 (7...Kh8 8.Qe8+ with mate to follow) 8.Qxh7+-

Solution to Problem # 48

This position is from round 1 of the 2007 U.S. Championships, in the game Becerra-Aigner. White wins with 37.Nh6. Here is the complete game score:

Becerra,Julio (2608) - Aigner,Michael (2300)
The Frank K. Berry 2007 US Championship Stillwater United States (1), 15.05.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0–0 8.d3 d6 9.c3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.Nbd2 Nd7 12.Nf1 Nb6 13.Ng3 Nc6 14.h3 Be6 15.Qe2 Re8 16.Bd2 Rb8 17.b3 Nd7 18.Be3 d5 19.d4 cxd4 20.cxd4 exd4 21.Nxd4 Nxd4 22.Bxd4 Bf6 23.e5 Be7 24.f4 Bc5 25.Bxc5 Nxc5 26.Rad1 Qb6 27.Kh2 Rbd8 28.f5 Bc8 29.Qh5 Nd7 30.e6 fxe6 31.fxe6 Rxe6 32.Qxh7+ Kf8 33.Nf5 Qc7+ 34.Kh1 Nf6 35.Qh8+ Ng8 36.Rf1 Rf6 37.Nh6 Be6 38.Nxg8 Bxg8 39.Rxf6+ gxf6 40.Qxf6+ Bf7 41.Qh6+ Kg8 42.Bh7+ Kh8 43.Bg6+ Kg8 44.Bxf7+ 1–0

Solution to Problem # 47

This position occurred in the game Langer-Perelshteyn from the first round of the 2007 U.S. Championship. White won two pawns, and ultimately the game, with 14.Nxe6 fxe6 15.Qxe6+ Kh8 16.Qxa6. Here is the complete game score:

Langer,Michael (2334) - Perelshteyn,Eugene (2611)
The Frank K. Berry 2007 US Championship Stillwater United States (1), 15.05.2007
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qd3 b6 6.Qe3 Ba6 7.Bxa6 Nxa6 8.Bd2 Nf6 9.0–0–0 0–0 10.Nge2 Rc8 11.Be1 Be7 12.Nf4 b5 13.exd5 cxd5 14.Nxe6 fxe6 15.Qxe6+ Kh8 16.Qxa6 b4 17.Nb5 Qd7 18.Bg3 Rc6 19.Qxa7 Qxa7 20.Nxa7 Rb6 21.Rhe1 Ng8 22.c4 bxc3 23.a4 Rxb2 24.Nb5 Bg5+ 25.f4 Rxf4 26.Re3 Rxd4 27.Nxc3 Rxd1+ 28.Nxd1 Re2 0–1

Solution to Problem # 46

This position occurred in the game Ehlvest-Pruess in round 1 of the 2007 U.S. Championship. White won with 28.Nc7! Nxc7 29.Bc3. The complete game score is as follows:

Ehlvest,Jaan (2683) - Pruess,David (2473)
The Frank K. Berry 2007 US Championship Stillwater United States (1), 15.05.2007
1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6 7.Nd2 Bg7 8.e4 0–0 9.Be2 Na6 10.0–0 Nc7 11.a4 Re8 12.f3 Nd7 13.Nc4 Ne5 14.Ne3 f5 15.exf5 gxf5 16.f4 Nf7 17.Rf3 Bd4 18.Kh1 Bd7 19.Bd2 Qf6 20.Nc2 Re7 21.Rg3+ Kh8 22.Bh5 Nh6 23.Nxd4 cxd4 24.Ne2 Ng4 25.Bxg4 fxg4 26.Nxd4 Nxd5 27.Nb5 Rae8 28.Nc7 Nxc7 29.Bc3 Nd5 30.Bxf6+ Nxf6 31.Kg1 Ne4 32.Re3 h5 33.Qd5 Nf6 34.Rxe7 Nxd5 35.Rxd7 Nxf4 36.Rxb7 d5 37.Rf1 Ne2+ 38.Kf2 Nd4 39.Re1 Rf8+ 40.Kg1 a5 41.Rd7 1–0