It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle – Anish Giri’s special puzzle

White to play and draw

provenance: a recent tweet by Anish Giri; I suspect the provenance is that is a puzzle, rather than a game position.

Had it been a game, and were I playing White, it would for sure be 0-1. However, Anish tweeted that he had solved it, and Nigel Short responded that he had too, so I had to accept the challenge. But I doubt it took either Anish or Nigel as long as it took me.

The standard British unit of time is the time it takes to make and drink a mug of tea: so a couple of units, at least; then a long dog walk, then pieces out in the lounge, half watching Scotland-Australia in the Rugby World Cup, but more throwing the pieces around; then a couple of tired last bed-time minutes before lights off, until, last night! -it all clicked.

My friend Luke McShane, who I forwarded Anish’s tweet to, had also solved it, and told me that he had also checked it to the Shredder tablebases, which I didn’t know existed. I have attached a link, or the url is http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html.

Solution

I think, on this one occasion, I won’t give the solution, but instead leave it to my readers to solve. I have also checked it with Deep Fritz 13, which finds the solution instantly (for all I know, it might have tablebases installed).

Turns out I got half marks: the main concept, the first move, the plan, but not the all important second move. Understanding why only one second move works, and why the other one which I lazily played doesn’t, requires a deep penetration into the endgame.

Enjoy!