Nelsi 2 years before: Principle: Flank pawn+ wrong bishop is always a draw Nelsi now:I already told you " a really good player know right time to violate principles" What a genius
I love the channel. In all seriousness, I've seen so many of your puzzles (subscribed) that I was able to call every move of this one. Thanks for posting awesome stuff.
I was so surprised when I had the right idea of h6 and Bh7. Only thing I got wrong was that I thought Bh7 would be immediately after h6, but I didn’t see Kg5 winning the pawn.
If the king had moved to f7 instead of f6 after the pawn moved to h6, then Bh7 would be next (as then black king to g8 would need to be immediately blocked rather than Kg5). Both the king move and the bishop move are needed, but the order is determined by where the black king moves. The pawn move is needed either way, which is why it moves first (otherwise, the black king can move in the way that white isn't set up to blockade in a single move).
I've been struggling with your puzzles but this one I solved. After pushing the pawn, if black goes to f6 then white goes Kg4 to block black as you showed. If black goes to f7, then white uses the Bishop first to h7.
What is surprising about this is that the position is not contrived, yet the the solution is one of those counterintuitive ideas. Can definitely see this being useful in a real game some day.
Pretty interesting puzzle and pretty interesting solution, but I don't like your reasoning for bringing the king up at this specific moment, you could have elaborated that way better. So the whole idea is that it's a race, black king trying to get into h file and white trying to secure that h file by building up a wall. The black king has two ways to get into the h file, either from above or from below, and you have to choose your sequence order such that you prevent that from happening. you play pawn to h6 first because it takes control of the diagonal square g7 which prevents the direct approach of the king to h8. now the king has two ways to go about this, either go for the f6 square attempting to hit the pawn from behind or he goes to f7 attempting to make a run for the corner. each of the two steps puts the king 1 tempo away from making his main plan but 2 tempos away from making his secondary plan. so if the king goes to f7 he can hit g8 in one move and secure the corner but he needs two moves to come back and hit the pawn from behind and vice versa. so if the king goes for f7 you play the bishop to h7 establishing a wall and since it takes two steps for the king to work his other plan, your white king has enough tempo to cover the pawns back establishing a defense with no holes in it. and if the king goes down to f6 then he is 1 tempo away from getting to the pawn then you move your king up to protect it (as it is the more immediate threat) then as it takes the black king two tempos to hit the corner square your bishop is just there in time to make the wall. then your king can make his way to g7 to attend the promotion ceremony.
Thanks. I've never seen that trick with the bishop and pawn blockade before. The flank pawn and wrong bishop is a common endgame theme, so this is good to know.
My attempt before seeing the solution: I think it's h6, Kf6, Kg4, Kf7, Bh7, Kf6, Kf4, etc. Or if they try to go kf7 immediately then it's: h6, Kf7, Bh7, etc. Same idea, the black king can't enter the g and h files at all and can be pushed out by the white king
We were on a cruise in Alaska when the this video was released and exactly 7 days ago there was a presentation of how many Rhode Islands fit into state of Alaska just wow this channel that I watch had it.
The key is the position of the opposing king. If it's close to or in the corner, it's a draw. However, as you see in the featured position, the Black King is far enough away from the corner to give White time to bring up his King and Bishop.
Hey Nelson I'm not sure if this is the place to propose this, especially with a video 5 days old already, but I have a challenge for you. Martin's pieces exercise zone of control, meaning if your piece moves near his, your piece can't get away in the same move.
Nice puzzle. You can't do anything once the black king gets to the g file, so you have 2 moves to block it. If Kf6, you need to play h6 and move the king up to block the dark squares. If Kf7, you need to play h6 to block the dark square and the only way to block the light squares is Bh7. h6 is required on both lines, so you need to play it first.
2:27 -- in case ANYONE else is wondering -- 2:27 -- the *VERY tempting-looking **_Bg6_* ...actually... *LEADS TO **_A DRAW_** !! :P* *P.S.* Also, at 3:49, you can *DIRECTLY* bring your King up to *f* 6, ... *NOT **_G_** 6* like shown here... You win *FASTER* that way !! :P .
The way you set up the puzzle made the tactic very easy to spot. Admittedly I wanted to go Bh7 first, then h6. I now see that Kf6 spoils any plans in that move order because the g5 and g7 squares are both weak.
I had the glorious situation recently of managing to salvage an unlikely draw by virtue of being up against a flank pawn and a wrong-colour bishop. So satisfying! Sacrificed my final pawn to sprint my king towards a1. Happy day :-D
Now, if only I can remember to make sure the black king can’t get into the corner ….. Great lesson, Nelson. I enjoyed solving this OTB. It took me many tries, even after you gave white’s first move. I like how you explained the blockade. Visual learner here.
Actually this one is quite easy to solve if you know what's the main threat of black. But yeah, you don't see this result often in a/h pawn, bishop and king vs king endgames. Edit: typo.
When you know there's a win, it's easy to find, but I think most players who know about the wrong rooks pawn endgame would take one look at the position and assume it's a draw.
Nope, it's not possible to checkmate with a king and bishop, even if your opponent helps you (a "helpmate"). The best you can do is stalemate. Because the bishop can't control two adjacent squares, even if you manage to get the opposing king into a corner with your king blocking it so that it only has a single rank or file to move along, your bishop can't both deliver check and control the escape square on the free rank/file. Weirdly, it might be possible to checkmate if your opponent has an extra piece (such as a bishop of his own), since that piece can block the escape square. Practically, though, you won't be able to checkmate your opponent unless they cooperate.
