WELCOME TO SATURDAY SOLVING!
Look for new puzzles here every two weeks. Each will include the answer to the previous position and a new one to ponder.
In last week’s Saturday Solving we set a very difficult task: achieve a draw from a materially lost position. Only in chess is it possible to come from behind and save seemingly impossible situations such as this one! If that doesn’t sound familiar you can find the most recent Saturday Solving at this link. And now, on to the solution!
It is all too easy to fall into a mistaken thought process in calculation after black’s second move. “Of course, I must take on e4, and the resulting pawn endgame is lost …” Try to avoid taking such “obvious” thoughts as a given. Occasionally, if you struggle against the rising tide, you will be rewarded with a beautiful idea, such as in this study.
This week’s problem comes from a position that arose from one of my own games at the 2021 National Open in Las Vegas. Yes, that’s over the board chess! My opponent IM David Pruess is well known in the world of online chess, and he comprehensively outplayed me in the first stage of the game. Even so, later on I managed to complicate matters and we reached this very interesting position on move 39, two moves before the time control (and an extra half hour for both players), with white to move. Take a minute or two to consider the situation as accurately as you can: that’s all we had left on the clock.
As always good luck, and feel free to submit your answer in the comments below!
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