Simplify

During my engine training this morning, I had another opportunity to employ the practical technique of simplification. Beginning from Reinfeld's Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations problem #332, I reached this position with Black and the move.

Black to move: think simplification


Rexe3+ forced the white rook off the board, eliminating all counterplay and creating an elementary king and pawn endgame. Black gives up a rook for a pawn, but leaves White with no remaining hope.

Inasmuch as I spend a lot of time teaching and coaching beginners, I often see players struggle longer than necessary. Being a rook ahead makes it possible to trade down to a simpler position. It is worthwhile to spend effort playing elementary king and pawn endgames until a one pawn advantage in most cases is a technical win that one can blitz through in a matter of seconds. In this case, Black's outside passed pawn renders the game elementary.

The Source

WCSAC #332 is in the section "Discovered Attack," but discovery becomes possible only if White plays the moves given by Reinfeld in his solution. Reinfeld's solution presents the continuation played in the source game: Burger - Evans, New York 1954.

Black to move


My chess engine chose a continuation different than Karl Burger's choice after I executed the key played by Larry M. Evans. There was no discovery, but the win still was relatively easy.