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FEN: Q7\/8\/5k2\/6R1\/4b3\/6pK\/8\/4q1q1 w – – 0 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily as bad as you think,\u201d I said. \u201cIn fact, I think you may be able to win this game! But first things first. Can you find a way to save both your queen and rook?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joaquin looked at the position a bit. \u201cAha!\u201d he said. \u201cI can\nplay 1. Qg8 and defend my rook with the queen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s true enough,\u201d I said. \u201cBut here\u2019s the problem. If\nyou give the queens any chance to move, they\u2019re going to checkmate you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou mean they\u2019re like robot ninja warriors!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, I didn\u2019t quite know what that meant, but it sounded good to me. So I said, \u201cExactly! So, for example, if you play 1. Qg8, he can play 1. \u2026 Qh2+ 2. Kg4 Q1e2+ 3. Kf4 Qf3 mate. This is completely normal for an endgame like this. When your opponent has robot ninja warriors, you have to assume that they are going to kill you. So you can\u2019t even let them have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut how can I do that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou just have to play a check every move. Don\u2019t stop checking until you checkmate him. So here, for example, on this move, you have to find a check <\/em>that defends the rook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He looked at the position some more. \u201c1. Qd8+!<\/strong>\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s it! Notice how the queen is protecting the rook through<\/em> the king. It\u2019s like an x-ray defense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this point, let me leave the dialogue and enter analysis mode. Black can play either 1. \u2026 Kf7<\/strong> or 1. \u2026 Ke6. We decided to look at the first one. We agreed that here, 2. Qg8+ <\/strong>looks pretty good. Now it comes with check, and the rook and queen are defending each other. Again there are two choices for Black, 2. \u2026 Kf6 <\/strong>and 2. \u2026 Ke7. Again, because chess club time is limited, we only looked at the first one. Then White has a very thematic win with 3. Qg7+<\/strong> (which Joaquin found) Ke6 4. Re5+ Kd6 5. Qf6+! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The critical move! It would be easy for White to go wrong with 5. Qe7+ Kc6, only to discover that he can\u2019t continue to \u201cwalk the dog\u201d with 6. Rc5+?? because of 6. \u2026 Qxc5. By playing 5. Qf6+ White ensures that he \u201cwalks the dog\u201d in the right direction, and Black\u2019s robot ninja warriors can\u2019t get involved in the defense. After 5. \u2026 K any, 6. Re7+ K any 7. Qf8<\/strong> is mate. Not bad for a position Joaquin was prepared to give up as lost!<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had to leave it at that, because as far as Joaquin was concerned the game was over, and I didn\u2019t want to harsh his buzz by insisting that we look at the other variations. Indeed, White is also winning after 1. Qd8+ Kf7 2. Qg8+ Ke7. The key to the whole position is to realize that White wants to get his queen to the f6 square with check. If he can do that, he wins. So after 3. Qg7+ Kd6, 4. Qf6+ wins immediately. Or after 3. Qg7+ Ke6, 4. Re5+ Kd6 5. Qf6+ wins. And finally, if 3. Qg7+ Ke8, again 4. Re5+ Kd8 5. Qf6+ wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But here\u2019s a more challenging question: What if Black\nreplies to 1. Qd8+ with 1. \u2026 Ke6? Is it a win, draw, or loss for White? I found\nthis really interesting to work out. Of course, a computer figures it out in a\nsecond, so no peeking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FEN: 3Q4\/8\/4k3\/6R1\/4b3\/6pK\/8\/4q1q1 w – – 0 2<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll leave this as a challenge for my readers, but I\u2019ll give you one hint. Just as White has a key objective (to play Qf6 with check), Black also has an objective: to reach a6 or b6 with his king, so that Qf6+ can be met by \u2026 Bc6 or \u2026 Qb6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like the way that chess positions can be understood at\nmany different levels. On Joaquin\u2019s level, the key lessons are (1) when your\nopponent has robot ninja warriors, you can\u2019t even let them check you once, and\n(2) it is vital for White to understand the \u201cwalking the dog\u201d procedure for\nwinning with queen and rook. It\u2019s even more important here than it is in a\nstandard K+Q+R vs. K endgame, because here, if you don\u2019t succeed in setting up\nthe \u201cwalking the dog\u201d pattern, you\u2019re going to lose. By contrast, in K+Q+R\nversus K, if you don\u2019t get it right the first time, you\u2019ll get lots of second\nchances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a more advanced level, we have a formidable analytical\nchallenge after 1. Qd8+ Ke6, and you\u2019ll probably get lost unless you apply some\nform of schematic thinking. White formulates a goal, Black formulates a goal,\nand then it\u2019s all about which player can achieve his goal and stop the opponent\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the delightful things about running a chess club for kids is that I can watch them learn. And, sometimes, I can learn from them. Take, for example, this Tuesday, when I learned a new chess term: \u201crobot ninja warriors.\u201d One of the kids, named Joaquin, called me over and said that his opponent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,1363,16,171],"tags":[3033,1115,4336,2165,109,4335,4337],"class_list":["post-5835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chess-clubs","category-current-news","category-positions","category-ruminations","tag-battery","tag-goals","tag-harsh-the-buzz","tag-schematic-thinking","tag-scholastic-chess","tag-walking-the-dog","tag-x-ray-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5839,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835\/revisions\/5839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/one-day-5.jpg\")