{"id":21388,"date":"2025-07-18T21:48:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T21:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-key\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:06:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:06:02","slug":"the-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-key\/","title":{"rendered":"The key"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brain is the key that sets me free,\u201d Houdini once noted of his own escapes. For example, he developed a maneuver with his elbow that allowed him to escape a straitjacket. He knew all manner of tricks with ropes and handcuffs when flirting with death in his shows.<\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s position black\u2019s a2 pawn ties up white\u2019s rook, as white\u2019s king flirts with death on the other side of the board. With a little trick of the elbow white draws. With this hint in mind please try to find white\u2019s best move.<\/p>\n

Tempting is to capture black\u2019s advanced f2 pawn. However, after king takes pawn, black\u2019s f4 pawn moves to f3. Because white\u2019s rook is tied down to a8 so as to thwart black\u2019s a2 pawn, black\u2019s king is free to circle behind the pawn and escorts it toward f1.<\/p>\n

Instead, white\u2019s best move is the counterintuitive rook takes pawn on a2. The point is that if black\u2019s rook takes white\u2019s rook, white is stalemated, as now black\u2019s f2 pawn is defended by its rook as the f2 pawn prevents the white king\u2019s escape (see next diagram).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Black\u2019s best reply to the rook capture on a2 is to slide its rook to f3, protecting the f2 pawn. White\u2019s rook crosses the board to a8 and prepares to keep the black king cornered on the edge of the board with checks from g8 and h8 (see next diagram).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

For example, white\u2019s king moves to g3 so as to be near its pawns, only to be pushed away with rook to g8 check. You don\u2019t need be Houdini to escape with a draw from here but white\u2019s positional edge should draw with correct play.<\/p>\n

The lesson this week is the mind is the key.<\/p>\n

Reach Eric Morrow at ericmorrowlaw@gmail.com<\/a> or (505) 327-7121.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

white\u2019s best move?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1091,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-columns","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77289,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21388\/revisions\/77289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21388"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}