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The Problemist, March 2005 |
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Written by Michael McDowell
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The March issue reported on the Final of the 2004-2005 Winton Capital
British Chess Solving Championship. Five Solving GMs (including three
ex-World Champions) took part, and the event was won by Jonathan Mestel
with a perfect score. Amongst the awards published were Longer
Helpmates 2003, Fairies 1999 and the Norman Macleod Award for 2002-03,
which was shared by Wilfried Neef and Marjan Kovacevic. Also included
were obituaries of British study expert Mike Bent, Austrian composer,
columnist and publisher Friedrich Chlubna and Israeli solver Alex
Ettinger. There were articles on “Static White Queen in the orthodox
helpmate” by Mirko Degenkolbe, and the “Schiffmann Attack” by Chris
Handloser. In the Supplement Michael Lipton examined a cross-check
scheme employed by, amongst others, Mansfield and Wurzburg.
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K Grabowski (v. Geoff Foster)
5th Comm., Brisbane Courier, 1916
Mate in 2
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1.Rh2 (2.Rc2)
1...f6 2.Sxd4
1...f5 2.Re6
1...d3 2.Rc4
1...S any 2.Qc7
1...Bxe4+ 2.Rc2
A two-mover from the BCSC Final. There are prominent set variations
1...Bxe4+ 2.Bxe4 and 1...gB any 2.Rxd6 to distract the solver from the key.
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Wilfried Neef
Norman Macleod Award, 2002-2003
Selfmate in 16
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1.Bh8 Qxb1 2.Rhg7+ Kxh8
3.Rg8+ Kxg8 4.Rg7+ Kh8
5.Rg8+ Kxg8 6.Qe6+ Kh8
7.Sf7+ Kg8 8.Sh8+ Kxh8
9.Qe5+ Kg8 10.Sf6+ Kh8
11.Sg8+ Kxg8 12.Qh8+ Kxh8
13.g7+ Kg8 14.e8R+ Kf7
15.g8Q+ Kf6 16.Qg6+ Qxg6
Judge Marjan Kovacevic (who did not judge his own joint-awardwinner!)
wrote “Everything is inspired: the colourful initial position, the
quiet thematic introduction, and the main part of the play completing a
record number of 7th WCCT sacrifices. The icing on the cake comes at the
end, when the last white soldiers promote to become heroes on the empty
battlefield.”
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Mike Bent
3rd HM., Schakend Nederland, 1965
White to play and win
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1.d7 Bxe2+ (If 1…Ra1+ 2.Kf2 Rd1 3.Sd3 wins)
2.Sxe2 Ra1+
3.Sc1! Rxc1+
4.Ke2 Rc2+
5.Ke3 (Not 5.Kd3? Rc6!) Rc3+
6.Ke4 Rc4+
7.Ke5 Rc5+
8.Ke6 Rc8
9.dxc8R! wins.
An artistic study by the late Mike Bent, Britain’s most prolific composer
of the genre.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 16 November 2011 13:17 |
2005 