Beautiful Puzzles and Studies 4/7

Introduction

In the third of this 7-blog series on beautiful puzzles and studies, we looked at a case where white was up two whole pieces, but needed to create a work of art in order to win in 3 moves. This blog builds on that puzzle, so if you have not taken a look at 'Beautiful Puzzles and Studies 3/7' I recommend you to check that out first, in your best interest.

Now, to be clear, Bf6! was not the only winning move in the puzzle. Other moves like Nf5 or Ng4 would have gotten white over the line as well, but they require careful execution of the bishop and knight checkmate. This checkmate would be aided by the placement of the black king, but still it is easy to mess up. Bf6 was the only way to checkmate in 3 moves.

In this puzzle, we will consider the mirror image of that puzzle. This is not just flipping the board --- the board will appear flipped, but it is still from white's perspective. Take a look below:

Again, the position appears flipped, but if you look at the coordinates they are from white's perspective. This means black's pawns are going down, one square away from promotion. Can you find a way for white to checkmate in 3?

Note, unlike the other puzzle, the only way to win is through this technique, so it is very important, otherwise you either stalemate or lose. Also note that Bc3 (the mirror of Bf6 in the previous puzzle) does not work here, as that is stalemate.

The Solution

Just like in the previous puzzle, we need to find a way to break the stalemate. A knight move will do it, but after Kb1 your best bet is to come back to a3 and repeat the position. So, what is the best move?

Let's go through our options. Bxb2+ is absurd and leads to a draw at best. This leaves us with only one reasonable move, and that is Kc3!

We are giving black the opportunity to promote the b pawn, and so they do, with b1Q. What's next?

Of course, we do not take the queen, allowing black to play axb1Q, and we are in fact losing. So, we have to play Nc2+!

After Qxc2, Kxc2# is a beautiful checkmate.

Concluding Thoughts

We see that the idea of Kc3 is the only idea that wins white the game. I hope you noticed that in both of these puzzles (3 and 4) white was able to checkmate black with a lone minor piece. This is not possible against a lone king, but with a rook pawn, chances can arise to checkmate with only a knight or bishop with the king's aid. We saw this occur with the knight in the previous puzzle, and in this puzzle we saw it work with the bishop. A notable example of this lone minor piece checkmate was seen by GM Hikaru Nakamura in his stream, where he checkmated GM Wesley So with the lone knight in a similar fashion. So, if you are on the defending side with a rook pawn, be sure not to advance it too far, otherwise you could get yourself into trouble!

That's it for this blog! I'll be back with the remainder of the puzzles in this series. Here's the analysis board with the position (hope it works): Analysis board • lichess.org!