Charity -- the BEST Kind

NN vs. BlueEyedRook

www.redhotpawn.com

05/08/06

White to Move

I thought this was a clearly drawn situation. Yes, white is a whole piece ahead of me, but the cruelest reality of chess is that two knights can never score a mate. Thus, as long as I can keep the white pawn from queening, I should be just fine. Since my g4-bishop is nestled snuggly (i.e., the king can't take it). I thought this game was done. If the pawn ever queened, I would simply take it with the bishop and the game would be a draw with insufficient mating material.

Luckily, my opponent thought the exact same thing and offered me a draw which I accepted.

We were both completey wrong!

1. Nd6+!! wins the game. The key I (and obviously my opponent) missed is that the white king has only one square to retreat to: d7. This is a huge problem because this blocks the black bishop from guarding the queening pawn. 1... Kd7 is followed by the inevitable 2. c8=Q+. The black king can't capture the pawn since it is now being guarded by the pesky d6 knight. 2... Kxd6 gives black some comfort (that awful knight is gone), but it has done its damage: a knight vs. queen endgame where black is inevitably doomed.