Daily Chess Puzzle

Today’s position is an interesting endgame from the recent London Classic.

Since the start of 2018, I have decided to adopt the style of only saying which side is to play: and not giving an idea if the move wins or otherwise, unless on occasion I think signposting would be helpful. Instead, the problems are posed with the instruction to decide what you would play, as in a game.

White to play

McShane v Hawkins, British KO, London 9/12/18

Solution

Luke played 1 Re7, and, after the game, told me he felt he had a fairly substantial advantage.  There seem to be three factors: his rook on the seventh, control of the e-file, and his well placed B, cutting the King from moving to c8 and d8.

I have spent some time analysing the endgame, without forming a conclusion. I suspect Jonathan had better drawing chances by some move order changes in the line he played, or by activating his King via b6.

See the game file on my ChessBase Cloud Database.

In the game, White centralised his King, a pair of rooks came off, further centralisation, and then the exchange of the remaining rooks. Lovely play by Luke, which advanced him to the semi-final, where he beat Mickey Adams. {This blog is written days in advance, before the final v Gawain Jones has started).

FEN

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