White to move.
White is in serious time pressure, and the arbiter won’t grant white’s draw claim. The event is FIDE-rated, so there is no rule 14E. The position is not a dead position, because there is a helpmate:
In the top diagram, how does white force a dead position, thus achieving an automatic draw?
Bill Smythe
White can’t force a dead position. White can move the Bishop where Black can take it, but Black is not forced to capture the Bishop. That means the helpmate will always be there as long as both the Bishop for White and the Knight for Black are on the board.
Larry Cohen
Since White is the only one with tempo moves, he can force the opposition. Also, White can place the B on either b6 or c7 and use it to cut off the Black King from going either toward the a-file or the 8th rank, respectively.
So the concept probably looks like this:
From a move order perspective, perhaps 1 Bb6 is better – 1…Kg3 2 Kg1 Kf3 etc. For example: 1. Bb6 Kg3 2. Kg1 Kf3 3. Kf1 Ke4 4. Ke2 Kd5 5. Kd3 Kc6 6. Kc4 Kb7 7. Kb5 Kc8 8. Ka6 Kb8 9. Bc7+ Kc8 10. Ka7
Just curious, but isn’t all FIDE games played with an increment? I would think in that scenario, A TD would allow someone, an assistant or the tournament director himself, to stand and count the moves to the 50 move draw rule. At least, I would hope so.
No, not all FIDE games are played with an increment. In any scenario I can’t believe a TD would count toward the 50 move rule without a request from a player. He should, however, count towards the 75 move rule.
Alex Relyea
Puzzle-wise, kbachler has this one nailed.
Please observe that the white bishop is essentially immune from capture, in that capturing it (with either the K or the N) would immediately give white his sought-after dead position.
Therefore, white can move the bishop to any square on the a5-d8 diagonal, including b6 or c7, and still keep the knight essentially trapped in the corner.
So white can use the bishop not only to gain the opposition, but also to restrict black’s king. It should be extremely easy for white to get his king to a7, b7, or b8 (probably within 20 moves or so) where he can capture black’s knight at a8 (or allow his own bishop to be captured) to achieve a dead position.
Rule-wise, I agree that an arbiter would be reasonable in initiating a silent 75-move count as soon as he sees what is going on. I’ll go beyond that, though. If, anywhere between the 50th and 75th moves of this silent count, white claims a draw by the 50-move rule (or even requests the arbiter to “begin” a 50-move count), the arbiter would be well within his rights to grant the 50-move claim immediately.
In fact, even if the silent count has not yet reached 50 (for example, let’s say it’s around 40), and white claims 50 moves or requests a count, it would be reasonable (IMHO) for the arbiter to say “not yet, but I’m counting” and then, at move 50, to intervene and say “that’s 50, you’ve got your draw if you still want it”. I hope nobody tries to tell me that this action could be construed as giving aid to white in any prohibited way.
Bill Smythe
I didn’t think I had to spell out the obvious that a player would need to request that.
I thought FIDE had the quickplay finish rule that applies to standard and rapid games played without increment or delay. Appendix G.5. states the “cannot win by normal means” rule. I remember this came up about a decade ago when an American GM playing in Europe lost on time with R + K against his opponent’s N + K. The GM incorrectly thought he couldn’t lose on time, when all he had to do was summon the arbiter and make the claim.
Michael Aigner