Just a Mechanism
Try to figure out a plausible mechanism of the following transformation. Note that this problem was taken from the ICho 39 (International Chemistry Olympiad among Highschool Students) Preparatory Problems which will be held at Moscow State University in July. So, shame on you if you can’t solve it!

P.S. Friday Night Retrosynthesis Categoryis renamed to Chalk Talk. Since I am quite busy with my Diploma Project I don’t have much time to do retrosyntheses and post this kind of stuff lately. However, you can expect to see new retrosynthesis posts from time to time.
easy
Comment by liquidcarbon — April 6, 2007 @ 1:25 am
Where is your solution then?
Comment by Tynchtyk — April 6, 2007 @ 11:30 am
What a neat transformation. I may have to add this to my repertoire of cummulative exam questions. Somewhat deceiving at first. Do you want me to give away the answer? I’ll post the mechanism on my blog later this afternoon.
Comment by Greg — April 6, 2007 @ 7:04 pm
Ok.
Comment by Tynchtyk — April 6, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
Done. Thanks for the nice problem. I have posed a new mechanistic question at the end of my answer.
Comment by Greg — April 6, 2007 @ 10:05 pm