A Single Pawn Against The Whole Black Army

February 20, 2023 NHaselton Chess Lectures

Chess with SurenMon, February 20, 2023 10:13amURL:
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This is a grotesque chess problem composed by Hungarian electrical engineer and chess composer Otto Blathy!
In grotesque chess White fights with a very small force against a much larger black army. This chess problem is not an exception and White wins with only a single pawn by promoting it to a Knight!
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Ottó Bláthy, The Chess Amateur, 1922
White to play and win
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This position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) is : 8/8/8/2p5/1pp5/brpp4/qpprpK1P/1nkbn3 w – – 0 1
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