It's all in your mind! (1)

by Frederic Friedel
6/12/2022 – Are you able to play a game of chess without view of the board? Can you solve problems and studies by just looking at a position or a diagram? Well, grandmasters and very strong players can stun us with feats of mental skill that we mortals are scarcely able to comprehend. We start our series with an experiment in which you can try competing with some great chess prodigies.

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

For many years – actually for a couple of decades – I have used a "talent test" to gauge the strength of very young players. It consists of just six pieces and is easy to dictate: "wKd8, Pb5, h2; bKa7, Pa6, b7; White to play and win". Naturally it has to be solved without pieces, all in your mind. A couple of my young victims went on to become top grandmasters, or in fact World Champions. Some of the adventures I have more recently had with the talent test are described in this article, which also has a video of me describing earlier experiences (e.g. with the young Garry Kasparov).

I'm afraid, however, that my classical talent test has reached the end of its lifespan. I have written about it, and the super-talents I tested could not wait to show the puzzle to their friends. So in the future when I meet a budding young player and say: "I want to give you a puzzle to solve..." they will answer: "You mean the 1.b6+ talent test?" Well, it has served me nicely for more than thirty years...

But new super-talents keep coming, and I need a quick test to assess their level of skill. So I started using one of the most famous studies of all time. Before I embark on the narrative, I want you to join me in a small experiment. The result will play a role in the story that follows. 

Please take a look at the above position – it is White (moving up the board) to play and win. Chances are you already know the study, but if you don't, please don't scroll down. Try to solve the problem in your mind, by just looking at the 3D-board above. 

You will probably instantly see that White must start with 1.c7, since any king move allows 1...Rc5, after which the pawn is lost. The question is how you can progress after 1.c7 Rd6+? White clearly cannot play 2.Kb7. If he does, then Black will play 2...Rd7, pinning the pawn and capturing it on the next move. So how does White proceed?

Now I want your brain to leap into action: by just looking at the board above, can you figure out a clear path to victory for White? You have to work out a strategy that is six moves long (and ends with a wonderful subtly). The question is: can you see all the intricacies  – including why only one very specific line works – by just looking at the board? Or follow the solution, which I will now give? 

Your mental thought process must be as follows: 2.Ka7 is just as bad as 2.Kb7. Black simply pins the c7 pawn and captures it on the next move. So White must clearly move the king downwards. 2.Ka5?? is insane: Black actually wins, after 2...Rc6 and 3...Rxc7.

White can try 2.Kc5, but maybe you saw the defence: 2...Rd1 (or ...Rd2 or ...Rd3). If the pawn promotes Black can skewer the king with 2...Rc1+ (or c2 or c3).

So White must play 2.Kb5! Black continues with 2...Rd5+, and now once again White cannot move to the c-file because of ...Rd1, ...Rc1+ and ...Rxc7. So White continues 3.Kb4 Rd4+ 4.Kb3 Rd3+ 5.Kc2. Looking good: 5...Rd1 and ...Rc1+ is no longer impossible.

But here comes a black defence that most people, solving in their heads, will miss. A number of chess engines miss it as well, in the look-ahead in the initial position. The defence is 5...Rd4! Now if 5.c8Q then 5...Rc4+, and when the queen captures the rook it is stalemate!

So what can White do? 5.c8R!! (threatening immediate 6.Ra8 and mate). 5...Ra4, and now White plays 6.Kb3, attacking the rook and threatening 6.Rc1#. Black is lost.

Were you able to follow the entire solution in your head? If you have trouble doing it, try moving the pieces on our live diagram board:

 

The above position was taken from a study published in 1908 in the Deutsche Schachzeitung by the remarkable Platov brothers, Vassily and Mikhail Nikolaevich. They composed hundreds of similar works and are considered, with Rinck and Troitzky, the founders of the modern endgame study. I will now give you the full study, which you can solve with an enhanced feature of our live diagrams:

 

Here you can use a recent enhancement to our live diagrams: click on the fan button below the board to switch on a chess engine. It will analyse with you and help you find the solution. Note that the + and – buttons to the right of the engine window that appears display more or less lines, while the "!" button (my personal favourite) tells you what a move is threatening. Of course, you might want to first try and solve the study on your own, or without switching on the engine. Maybe even in your head?!

And now to first results with my experiment: I dictated the position shown in the first diagram to about a dozen candidates. All amateurs didn't have a chance of solving it in their minds. The mid-teens with full GM titles who did not know the position,  struggled for a while, but worked out all the complexities, with a little prompting from me, in an average of ten minutes.  A majority, however, knew the study (GM Leon Mendonca: "Fred, I have known it since I was five!").

One interesting candidate was Tykhon Cherniaiev. On an adventure playground I called the 12-year-old and started dictating the position: "So there is a black king on a1, a white king on b6, white pawn on c7..." Before I could finish the lad exclaimed: "Yes, I know it: White plays c7, the rook..." (which I had not yet mentioned) "...checks, the king goes to c2 and then underpromotes!" This kid must have thousands of studies in his mind.

And another interesting candidate: John Nunn. When I dictated the study to him he was a bit taken aback. Was I serious? Instead of giving me the solution, he started telling me the historical background of the study.

In 1875 there was a game between Richard Fenton and William Potter. It ended in a draw, but Johannes Zukertort showed how Fenton could have won. In 1895 G.E. Barbier published a study he derived from the Fenton–Potter game. He claimed that with wKb6, Pc7; bKa1, Rd5; Black to play could draw (1...Rd6+ 2.Kb5 Rd5+ 3.Kb4 Rd4+ 4.Kb3 Rd3+ 5.Kc2 Rd4! 6.c8=Q Rc4+ 7.Qxc4 stalemate – as in the study above).

But then a Spanish priest. Fernando Saavedra, who lived in Glasgow, pointed out that White could win with the underpromotion given above. That single move made Saavedra, who was not a strong player, one of the best-known figures in chess. Mention his name to any chess enthusiasts, and chances are that they will know who he is. More likely than Zukertort or Kieseritzky.

So how was John able to extemporize this explanation. Well, it turns out he is the proud owner of a chess book solely devoted to this subject: 

No Rook Unturned – A Tour Around the Saavedra Study,  written in 2004 by Harrie Grondijs.

It is 361 pages long and entirely devoted to the Saavedra position and the personalities connected to it.

The first edition consisted of 30 copies, and John bought number 15 (with an autograph of the author). There was a later second edition, also of 30 copies.

About this book John says: "It's beautifully produced and full of meticulous research."

And here is the full solution to the Platov study. Note that you can click on the moves of the notation to get a replay on the side, where you can follow the lines given. 

 



Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register

Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 6/16/2022 04:30
For those without the talent of Cherniaiev or Mendonca, or without endgame study books, the solution to the Liburkin study (before this article falls from the page): 1 Nc1! Rxb5 2 c7 Rd5+ 3 Nd3 Rxd3+ 4 Kc2 and on like Saavedra, or 1... Rd5+ 2 Kc2! (2 Nd3? Rxd3+ 3 Kc2 Rd5=) 2... Rc5+ 3 Kd3! (3 Kd2? Rxb5 4 c7 Rb2+ 5 Kd1 Rc2!) 3... Rxb5 4 c7 Rb8 5 cxb8B!
The position with the king going up and down twice (but without the Saavedra stalemate) I mentioned was by Troitzky: white Kf1/Rh1/Nh7/Pd5, black Kb6/Rc2/Pe6,f6. Figure that one out for yourself.
genem genem 6/16/2022 12:45
Unclear how a chess student can best learn an functional abstract representation of the chessboard thoroughly enough to follow these variations in his head, without constant intense effort to see all the necessary relationships (like how Qxc4(r) also presses on the a2-square. Chess books teach moves, but not really the board, except for Michael de la Maza's Rapid Chess Improvement book's drills. SAN gives some info beyond what coordinate notation would give, and so SAN is a bit of a cheat in blindfold chess.
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 6/14/2022 07:27
Yes, I could find the solutions, but that's not a proof of big talent – by having seen a few endgame study books I immediately thought at the b6+ test: ah, Joseph, composed during a train journey (without the introductory moves) and with the second one: oh yeah, Saavedra theme, forgotten it were the Platov brothers.
Another famous one with this theme is by Liburkin:

Another one has the white king going down and up the board twice, but I haven't traced it yet.
psamant psamant 6/13/2022 12:04
The article provides a link (https://www.chessbase.in/news/Frederic-Friedel-in-India) to an earlier article where Frederic met a girl Savitha whose chess playing abilities impressed him. The article is almost four year old. I am curious to know how Savitha has done - in chess and in life. Any updates would be very interesting
arzi arzi 6/13/2022 09:16
Accidentally, the comments section has been left on by FF. Other columnists cannot turn on comments, I guess?
Theochessman Theochessman 6/13/2022 05:16
Comments are back?
OK, then I will start reading the articles again.
1