A square walks into a bar. The bartender asks, “Why the long sides?” In this classic chess problem from chess composer A. Troitsky (not to be confused with communist L. Trotsky of the Russian revolution), Troitsky demonstrates the game at its heart is about controlling key squares. With this hint, please try to find white’s winning line.
If black’s king can reach h8, white has the wrong-colored bishop to force the promotion of its pawn onto an opposite-colored square. Similarly, if black’s king can occupy the light-colored squares on g6 or h7, white has insufficient power to promote. Because of this, white’s first move is bishop to f5.
Black cannot take the bishop, because it lures the black king one square too far away from stopping white’s pawn. Meanwhile, the bishop stops the black king from moving to g6. The black king steps back to f7, intending to move to g8 then h8. White thwarts this with bishop to h7 (see next diagram).
The g8 square is now blocked by the bishop. The black king stays as close as it can to the pawn and moves to f6. White’s king now joins the action and moves to f4 (see next diagram).
From here, the black king is forced back as white’s king advances. Even with imprecise maneuvering by white, the white king eventually finds its way to g7 and escorts its pawn to h8, which promotes to a queen or rook.
In chess, it’s good to be square, as it were. Unlike L. Trotsky, neither A. Troitsky nor Huey Lewis were communist revolutionaries. Squares are cool rectangles.
Reach Eric Morrow at ericmorrowlaw@gmail.com or (505) 327-7121.