his position comes from a game between Mitch Fishbein (1796) - Nicole Zlotchevsky (1901), Round 4, Empire City Open, December 28, 2016, posted on Facebook by Mitch's father GM Alex Fishbein.

 

   In the position on the right it is White to move. 

 

   Answer below.

• Brian Wall: I will be published in American Chess Magazine from Serbia
• Brenan Nierman: Nazí Paikidze-Barnes wins her second US Women's title. Wesley So wins his first US Championship.
• Michael Fpawn Aigner: An American will be ranked #1 in the world.
• Will Barela: I will spread USCF membership into Juarez and Chihuahua Mexico!!
• Ruth Haring: One of the US Women will get on the Top 10 List for women in the world
• William Chandler: To finally get to my first US Open, and to actually spend more time studying rather than playing blitz
• C.k. Damrosch: Some kind of pro chess league catches on and we eventually actually get to see a few matches on TV.
• Curt Carlson: Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, and Vladimir Kramnik will take turns being #2 behind Magnus Carlsen who will stay top dog.
• Anton Taylor: I will get the NM title in 2017

   I hope that 2017 will be a great one for you and your chess game!

   I do not have the complete game, but here is the PGN of the position and what happened:

[Event "35th Annual Empire City Open"]
[Site "New York, NY"]
[Date "2016.12.28"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Fishbein, Mitch"]
[Black "Zlotchevsky, Nicole"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1796"]
[BlackElo "1901"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/8/8/6p1/1p6/6kp/6r1/2R4K w - - 0 0"]
[PlyCount "7"]

{[#]} 1. Rc3+ Kh4 2. Rxh3+ Kg4 (2... Kxh3 $11) 3. Kxg2 Kf4 4. Rb3 1-0

   You can play through this position here: http://www.viewchess.com/cbreader/2017/1/1/Game863501859.html

 

   Answer:   

   Rxh3+! leads to a stalemate for White after ...Kxh3.  However that is not what actually happened in the game.

   Alex writes (he starts with the position a little earlier with the rook on c1, and King on g3) :



   Mitch was White here and had 3 seconds left (on 10-second delay), and Black had about 5 minutes left. Black played 1...Rg2. The game continued 2.Rc3+ Kh4 (2...Kg4 is also a draw), and now Mitch touched his Rook and was about to play 3.Rc4+; at the last moment he saw 3.Rxh3+ instead and, having not released the Rook, played 3.Rxh3+ and immediately offered a draw by extending his hand across the table. His opponent quickly played 3...Kg4 instead of accepting the draw. After 4.Kxg2 Kf4 5.Rb3 Black resigned (1-0).
 

   He added: Also I think the best move of the game was Mitch's draw offer -- it removed the option of 3...Kxh3 (why would you play it instead of just accepting the draw), leaving the only options to play 3...Kg4 or to shake his hand (and I could see being too angry at that point to shake hands)


   Thanks for sharing this position Alex!  I think it is very instructive!

 

   Happy Tactics!

 

   Your Friend,