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The above position, with Black to play, occurred in an online blitz game played by Niladri Bhattacharyya over a year ago, when his opponent blundered and lost. 1...Rd1?? – a catastrophic mistake: 2.Nf1+ Kh1 3.Rg1#. The checkmate was unavoidable, even after 2...Rxf1+3.Kxf1 Kh1 4.Kf2 h2 5.Kg3 Kg1 6.Rb8 h1=N+ 7.Kf3 Kh2 8.Rd8 Kg1 9.Rd2 Ng3 10. Kxg3.
However, it turns out there was a defence for Black. Did you get it after studying the position on our title page? Well, the best chance for White is to play the amazing 1...Kh1!, after which Black must show some magical ideas.
Now capturing the rook only draws: 2.Kxe1 h2 3.Ra8 (3.Rf8 Kg2=) 3...Kg2 4.Ke2 h1=Q 5.Rg8+ Kh3 is a draw (5...Kh2?? 6.Nf3+ Kh3 7.Ng1+ Kh4 (7...Kh2 8. Kf2+–) 8.Rh8+ in fact loses).
But White can continue with 2.Rc8! How the magical endgame proceeds can be seen in the following analysis. If you have any comments or corrections please post them in the feedback section below, or send email feedback to the editors.
Niladri Sekhar Bhattacharyya was born in 1978. He became a professional chess player in 1998 and played National 'B' more than ten times. During a coaching career of 15 years he has produced many professional players, GMs and IMs. Currently he is working with his own institute Today Chess Foundation. He had a peak rating of 2182 and his current rating is 1899.
Niladri, above with Hikaru Nakamura at the Tata Steel Chess India 2018 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed
