the library · reviewed 2026-09-21

Ahmad – Nikitenko

Grand-Open Galeria 2026 · 2026.02.19 · Elo 2472/2486 · tactic · ★

The daily position for Monday 14 September 2026. It is still open to solve — the grader reads your whole line, sidelines and evaluation included, before anything here is shown. Cover the solution and solve it first →

Black to move. the model predicts 72% at this level.

The solution

56…♖︎d1+! (not 56…♖︎b2? 57.♖︎c2 ♖︎xc2 58.♔︎xc2 b3+ 59.♔︎xc3 ⩱) 57.♔︎c2 (if 57.♔︎c4 then 57…♖︎d2 58.♖︎e1 c2 −+) 57…♖︎a1 (not 57…♖︎g1? 58.axb4 ♔︎g6 59.♔︎xc3 ♖︎xg3+ 60.♔︎c4 +−) 58.♔︎d3 ♖︎xa3 59.♖︎e7+ ♔︎g6 60.♖︎e6+ ♔︎xg5 −+

56…♖︎d1+ — almost nobody finds this
57…♖︎a1 — most players miss this · worth +1
58…♖︎xa3 — the standard move
59…♔︎g6 — the standard move · the fair stop: the line may end here
60…♔︎xg5 — routine — shown for completeness, never demanded

“hard to find”, “the natural move” and the rest describe how often this move is played by Maia-2, weighted across the 1500/1900/2000 audience the difficulty model is fitted on — a model of human play, not a count of anyone who solved this position.

Members can take this away as a PGN — the diagram, the verified line and their own analysis in one file, for a database, Anki or Chessable.

What happened at the board

Nikitenko played ♖︎b2 instead · 0-1

in the game 56…♖︎b2 57.♖︎e7+ ♔︎f8 58.♖︎c7 bxa3 59.♖︎c8+ ♔︎g7 60.♖︎c7+ ♔︎g6 61.♖︎c6+ ♔︎xg5 62.♖︎c5+… on to move 69 · 0-1full game ↗

The field

35% of the 26 committed lines here found the key move — the model predicted 72% at this level.

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