MATHEMATICS
DEPARTMENT
Any move played by black will result with white player’s
certain advantage.
The zugzwang in this position must not be confused with
mutual zugzwang. In the position, regardless of which
player moves first, white player always has one spare
move. Zugzwang in this position is for black player, since
none of the moves provide advantage for black. That’s
why this position can be noted as a {0|} = 1 game, where
white is left and black is right. (White wins regardless)
As black king moves out of the square by taking the
knight, and it is white to move, king cannot stop the
pawn from promoting.
Black player cannot use his bishop to stop pawn either,
because all possible bishop moves are cleverly blocked
with white’s knight. If black player moves the bishop to
g7, g5 or f8 white player can use knight to e6 or f5 to fork
the king and the bishop. If the bishop moves to d2 or c1,
white’s knight can fork again by moving to b3.
References:
• (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.chess.com/
chessopedia/view/mathematics-and-chess
• (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.chess.com/
blog/kurtgodden/the-first-scientific-theory-ofchess
• (n.d.). Retrieved from http://web.stanford.
edu/~wqy/research/Math%20191-%20Chess.pdf
• (n.d.). Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/pdf/
math/9905198.pdf
Perçem İlke AKOVA
10-D
THE CLAPPER 2016 - 2017 31