Yo! This is Ryan! (the guy who sent the positions) Nelson, I really want to thank you for showing off the position. It means a lot, as I feel like these endgame studies are too good to be this unknown (and I also get a mention in a somewhat popular channel but let's not talk about that). So yeah, thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Also, a quick note about the study towards the end: After ...Bc4, all white has to do to draw is move the rook (yes, even to squares that immediately lose it).
I made an endgame puzzle before. It starts from learning a lot of basic theory. It builds up and becomes typical patterns in more complex positions. For example using a king to stop the advance of three connected passes pawns while making a breakthrough. It becomes a task of reverse engineering once the patterns build upon themselves. This one is very well done.
i literally assumed the video was over after the second underpromotion and was already blown away and this comment made me go finish it lmao, just incredible
I just wanna say that out of all the chess youtubers, I feel like I really understand what you are telling me :) This was a wild one I got the first move but that was it haha
Good point... He ought to have covered this. I believe it's still a draw after Ne7+, Kb8 Nxc7, Kxc7 Nd5+, Bxd5 Bxd5. It's a Rook vs Bishop endgame which is in almost all cases a draw. If Ne7+ is replied with Kb7, ...Nc5+, Kb8 Nd7+ allows the king and rook fork again. It's easy to prevent the pawn from promoting, so it's another draw
1st prize the promotion to a bishop can also be a knight bc he gets his knight on either 1 square threatening checkmate you just bring the knight out and trade which is also a draw
10:00 actually it could perfectly be a draw if we could trade our knight for the bishop, because black can't checkmate us with 2 knights without stalemate or without having us a pawn to give them enough tempo for their checkmate
You said at 2:50 that the king can't move, but it can go to b7. It wasn't covered, but it looks like this maybe loses to Bd5+? I'm not sure because after Kc8, black can again play Ne4, leading to the knight underpromotion with check on g8, which is similar to the line that leads to a draw, but the pawns are on a6 and b6 instead of a7 and b7, and the bishop on d5 can capture the knight, so I'm not sure what happens then.
Good catch. But I believe after Bd5+ Kc8, Nb5 leads to a mate. If white promotes the g pawn, use the Bishop to take it. a7 and b7 both lose on the spot to Nd6# which was shown. If white plays Kb7 again, just play Bd5+ again.
@@BigDBrian After Na4, g8 = N+. Ke8 allows Nf6+, forking the king and knight, which leaves b8 open as an escape square for the king. (As covered in the video, any other king move allows the king to escape to d8.) Bxg8 allows Kb7, and after Bd5+, now the king can move to a7 since the knight on a4 is no longer positioned to give checkmate on b5. I'm not sure how much longer the game extends with either of these lines, but it doesn't seem obvious to me. Intuitively, the initial Kb7 should be bad, since white is effectively forfeiting a tempo to deflect the bishop to d5 as compared to the starting position, but it nevertheless seems like this line merited examination in the video. Edit: I figured it out. After black plays Bxg8: Kb7 Bd5+ Ka7 Naxb6 c8 = Q (or any piece, only move) Nxc8#. Or after Bxg8, if white plays a7: Bd5 a8 = N Bxa8 b7 Nb6#
@@elendarulianreo Ah I see. I forgot about the underpromotion trick there. But yeah, you can capture and white's still in a solid mating net as you showed.
What if the black bishop went from E1 -> H3 check - 10:29. That would leave white more open to move and either prolong or stop the stalemate. How is this a bad move? I do not see it. Can someone please explain?
You no longer have enough material to win in a regular endgame (I don't know if this amount of material is a straight up loss for black or not) but basically you no longer have a mate threat so might as well settle for a draw.
After Bh3, white plays king to b7, which is a discovered check on blacks king and I think from there black loses the opportunity to create more threats
This is probably my favorite study, with exception of Mitrofanov's Deflection. I've seen it before. Spoiler: I've mainly seen it as an Allumwandlung with a queen promotion.
(1) Stalemate should be a loss. (2) En passant should be available to none or all pieces. (3) In a draw endgame the winner should be the last player with mating pieces. E.i. queen exchange in the queen vs queen ending? The player who captured the queen first wins. (4) If neither rule apply black wins (extremely rare). Draws kill the fun of chess.
