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The Problemist, November 2006 |
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Written by Michael McDowell
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In the November issue John Rice presented some problems by C. M. Fox,
who composed over 900 problems despite beginning at the late age of 55.
Lecture reports included John Ling on the analysis of black correction
and (in the Supplement) Colin Russ’ selection of “Some
problems for pleasure”. Bulgarian composer Diyan Kostadinov
continued his exposition of the Zabunov theme, and Michael Lipton
presented variations on a problem by Adabashev. Awards included
Selfmates >3 for 2004, Two-movers 2004, Three-movers 2004 and Hans
Gruber’s judgment of a theme tourney for helpmates featuring a static
white queen. Browsing in the library went back to 1890 to cover B. G.
Laws’ treatise on the two-move chess problem. In the Supplement
John Rice presented some two-move mutates and David Shire examined a
Sushkov/Nowotny matrix.
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Sally and Tony Lewis
1st Prize, The Problemist, 2004
Mate in 2
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Set 1...Se7 2.Rd5
1...Qc5 2.Re6
Tries:
1.Qe4? (>2.Rd5) 1...Bxe5 2.Qxe5, but 1...Qxa5!
1.Qe3? (>2.Rd5) 1...Qxa5 2.Qc5 but 1...Sf7!
1.Qh5? (>Re6) 1...Sf7 2.Qg6 but 1...Rd5!
1.Bc1! (>2.Qf6)
1...Kxe5 2.Qf4
1...Bxe5 2.Bxa3
1...Rd5 2.Qxd5
1...Bc4 2.Sxc4
Described by the judge, Marjan Kovacevic, as “a natural fusion of
Beauty and Logic”. Like the Millour more-mover from the September
issue a successful adaptation of an old Sam Loyd problem, namely the
famous “American Indian” published in the New York Sunday
Herald in 1889. The tries, all of which are refuted by interference
strategy, caused havoc when this problem was used in the British Solving
Final of 2004.
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Les Blackstock
1st Prize, Static White Queen TT, 2005-2006
Helpmate in 5: 2 solutions
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1.Qf3 gxf3
2.Se4 fxe4
3.Sd5 exd5
4.Bc6 dxc6
5.Ba7 c7
1.Sf5 g4+
2.Ka7 gxf5
3.Qe6 fxe6
4.Bd7 exd7
5.Sc8 dxc8S
It was a requirement of the tourney that the presence of the static white
queen had to be essential. Here, using a bishop would create an illegal
position. Given the strength of a queen combined with the helpmate
condition it was an achievement to use so little cookstopping force. With
this problem the composer, who is well known to the playing fraternity,
joined the select band who have won a first prize with their first
composition.
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E. Delpy
Deutsches Wochenschach, 1908
Mate in 5
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1.h4 e2
2.Bc2 dxc2
3.Rb3 any
4.Rh3 any
5.Rh1
(1...Ke2 2.Bxd1+ Ke1 3.Bf3+)
One of Colin Russ’ “problems for pleasure” and an entertaining
solving challenge. Colin was unable to find any other problems by Delpy
and would welcome more information on him.
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Last Updated on Friday, 18 November 2011 14:31 |
2006 