There’s No Game Like Chess for the Holidays January 1st, 2004
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The tree’s still up. The mistletoe is beginning to droop by the door. The holly on the mantel is growing the slightest bit yellow.

It’s happened again. The holidays came and went, leaving you exhausted rather than exhilarated.

Face it. Yuletide cheer can be a pretty forced affair when you’re called upon to entertain and be entertained by a slew of relatives you seldom see, neighbors you scarcely know, and business associates you’d rather not associate with.

But the events are inevitable. You can’t back out of holiday entertaining, unless you suddenly start coughing uncontrollably and running a fever. Which may not seem so bad in comparison to that long (oh, so long) conversation with Cousin Norbert about how his business tanked and how nice and comfortable your couch looks.

Take heart. Today is the day for new beginnings. Next year can be different

Next December when the holidays threaten, prepare in advance. Instead of standing helplessly in the middle of your uncomfortably immaculate living room waiting for the doorbell to ring and your misery to begin, get busy. Bring out your chess set and arrange it on a side table, some convenient place a little apart from the social action but on the way to the buffet. Don’t choose your best, spanking-new set, but the one you actually use, the one with the nicks in the knight and the slight crack in the board. One that shows the unmistakeable signs of struggle and triumph. Then watch what happens.

“Oh, look,” someone will say. “Chess.” And, turning to a neighboring party-goer, your unwitting confederate will eventually speak the magic words. “Does anyone here play chess?”

That’s your cue to step forward with modest grace. Oh, yes, you do, of course, but not all that well. (This is not the time to broadcast your Elo, if you’ve got one.) Two or three guests, at the very least, will agree to have a go. Remember, they’re seeking socially approved ways to minimize Yuletide party agony, too.

Now things are rolling. If you’re playing, chat amiably as you do so. If you’re watching, beam in delight and throw inviting glances towards the rest of the guests. Oh, wow! People playing chess! Let’s go over and see.

See how the party’s taking off? People are talking and laughing, enjoying themselves. They’ve forgotten about the flu stalking the land and the bills in their mailboxes. Even Cousin Norbert looks as if he believes things are bound to turn up eventually.

If your party includes children, so much the better. The experienced chess players among them will beat the pants off most of the grown-ups – a real holiday treat they’ll demand to make a tradition. And for the young ones who are learning, you’ve got a special surprise. Fire up Fritz and Chesster Learn to Play Chess on the computer and they’re in on the fun, too. By the time their parents tell them it’s time to leave (“already?”), you’ll be declared the coolest party-giver ever.

So here’s your New Year’s resolution: next year, you’ll deck the halls fearlessly. Haul out the Yule log. Bring in the tinsel-covered guests. Because you’ve got the secret for transforming the obligatory seasonal gathering into an evening of memorable merriment.

And (in honor of the New Year) have yourself a merry little chess-fest now!

Regina Higgins

Regina Higgins writes and teaches college in North Carolina, where she lives with her husband and two children. She holds a Ph.D. in English, and has written textbooks, curriculum materials, and books for children. Her book on classic children’s literature, Magic Kingdoms, was published by Simon & Schuster. Regina first became interested in chess during the World Championship in 1972. She started playing again a few years ago, and hopes someday to be able to win a game from her eight-year-old son. She would, however, settle for a draw.

New Year's Puzzles

We cannot allow the holiday season to pass without giving you a helpmate to solve. We know that there are a lot of readers out there who, in spite of all our efforts and lessons (prize puzzle four) have not been able to derive real pleasure from this form of chess problem. So we will keep it small and elegant.

Gyula Neukomm, Magyar Sakkvilág 1945

Black to play, helpmate in four
A: Diagram; B: wKh6 => h5

We remind you how helpmates work: Black starts and both sides cooperate to mate him in the stipulated number of moves. Helpmates are much stricter than direct mate problems in one respect: the entire sequence of moves leading to the constructed mate must be completely unique. If there is even the slightest deviation at any point the problem is ruined.

The problem by the Hungarian composer Neukomm is a "twin". After you have solved the diagram position you must move the white king from h6 to h5 and solve that position, in each case constructing a mate in four moves.

Naturally it is our secret hope that eventually all our readers will come to realise the beauty and depth of helpmates. We tried the above position on a strong chess player who had never solved a helpmate in her life.

This is Kateryna Lahno, who scored a GM norm at thirteen, trying to construct a mate for White in four moves (in the above position). When she found it she was delighted to hear there was a twin, and went to work with genuine enthusiasm.

If this girl, currently rated 2486, can enjoy helpmates, so can you! For the unconverted (or the unconvertable) here is a humorous traditional mate problem by the same author:

Gyula Neukomm, Christmas card 1948

White to play and mate in ten

Note that if the pawn on b5 were not pinned White could deliver mate immediately with b5-b6#. How can White release the pin to deliver the mate? Smile when you have the answer.

Click here to see the solutions to all puzzles.

The page contains all the unsolved problems. It includes a link to a Javascript board on which you can can replay the moves of each solution and download the positions. On the Javascript page you will find all the positions quoted in our 2003 Christmas Puzzle section, including the ones for which solutions are already given in the text.

Return of Saavedra

Further to our article on the Spanish amateur's achievement of everlasting chess fame by finding a single move, we received the following note from Stephan Taylor of Melbourne, Australia:

It is with interest that I read your response to Robin Masur, regarding the description of Saavedra as "mediocre". I think the point that I felt when reading the original article, was not the description "mediocre", but the contmept implied by the tone. Here's something to consider. Imagine all the chess players in the world, of any strength. Now, how many of these are to be considered mediocre? I would suggest in excess of 99.9%. I have no problem with being a mediocre chess player, or, as Robin suggests, perhaps a modest player. I dedicate myself with a passion to something that I will never understand as a master. And I cherish, deeply, those who do understand as masters, and I am grateful for the jewels, the insights that they continually provide. However, while ever the masters of the world, or those purporting to be masters, express contempt for the mediocre, for the in excess of 99.9% of the chess playing population of this planet, it is not necessary to look to FIDE to find the problems that beset chess.

And Susan Grumer wrote: Just like Robin I got the feeling when reading the article that Saavedra was being belittled. And, as someone who has not done anything especially outstanding in my life, if I did one little thing that someone will remember many years later, I hope that when they tell the story they won’t say: 'she was really a dull person who never did anything worthwhile except we remember her for accidentally doing this one little thing.'

Okay, people. point taken. Many seem to find the use of the word "mediocre" (Tim Krabbé's choice, we wash our hands of blame) quite odious when applied to a chess player. We did not see it in the same severity, but will strive to avoid it in the future. We will instead choose from amateur, average, ordinary, regular, intermediate, typical, tolerable, moderate, passable, pedestrian, run-of-the-mill, standard, indifferent, unexceptional, undistinguished, vanilla, so-so.

Frederic Friedel

Tommy's Christmas Repton

Abe Taylor of Seattle, USA, wrote: "I am stuck on level 7, the middle bottom section. There is one way in and one way out of the area. Three diamonds are within, two in pits surrounding one raised diamond. As far as I can tell, I must enter from the right side by pushing the entrance boulder two squares to the left, then removing the dirt underneath, but then it falls on the diamond in the pit on the right, and now I can't get to that diamond. Agggh. any suggestions?" A few minutes later he sent us a second mail saying "Disregard my previous message, I just discovered how to do it!"

This is the section Abe was stuck on. Many readers still are.

Martin Leung of Irvine, California wrote: "I was trying to figure out Level 7 last night and gave up after my screen saver appeared for not moving for so long. In the section I'm talking about there are two entrances to get the three diamonds, but the left side is impossible to get through, so that leaves the right side to enter. However, when I go to collect the diamonds, the rock falls and traps a diamond. I can't think of any way to solve this situation! Please help! Happy New Year as well."

Happy New Year to you as well Martin, but we can't go helping you on this one. After all, eighteen years ago we went through the same pains – in fact we gave up on this screen for a whole day. I remember sitting at dinner and suddenly exclaiming: "Hey, I know how it can be done!" Both my sons solved it as well, once they knew it was not a bug. They did it during that dinner, without looking at the screen. Afterwards we switched on the BBC Acorn and completed the level (yawn) with the greatest of ease.

Jon Haughton of Darien, Illinois has a warning: "I got addicted to repton just the other day and i have solved the first 7 levels with relative ease! There are some tough parts though, especially in level 7 near the bottom with 3 diamonds and a boulder about to fall on one. Thanks for the challenge – I was up for hours during the early hours of January 1 playing this, so be sure to warn us again about how not to get addicted to it! Repton rules!

Chris O'Donnell of Bakersfield, California wrote a few days ago: "In today’s Christmas puzzle section it said anyone that has made their own Repton map should send it in for review. I feel that I have made a really nice map but I can't seem to find an email address in which to send it. I would love to share it with someone being that it’s not much fun to play your own map."

Sorry, we forgot that our feedback form does not allow you to send files. In this Age of Spam we cannot include an open email address on our web page. The government-sanctioned spam bots (the deadliest WMD on the Internet, the biggest threat for email correspondence) would pick it out in a trice. So we have to give it to you in the following form: the address is puzzle, then the at sign, then the company name, then com. That's what the scumbags have reduced us to doing!

New screens

Anyway, in the end Chris sent us a very nice Repton map which we have included in today's package. It just shows you what degree of sophistication you can reach in just a week of playing the Repton game. And even more remarkably, we received eight interesting screens from five-year-old Michael Nunn, son of the Doctor. Michael was the most active debugger during the creation of our Chrismas Repton. His father John Nunn wrote:

"When my son Michael was four, I showed him the computer game Repton which had fascinated me when it appeared in the mid 1980s. He quickly became very keen on this game. After he had solved all the Repton 1 levels, he wanted to make some levels of his own. Over the next year, he then proceeded to create hundreds of Repton levels using the FX-Repton editor. I have selected eight of these. They were made without any outside assistance and have not been modified in any way since. My involvement was only to make sure that they could, in fact, be solved. You should bear in mind that they may contain features which a five-year-old finds extremely amusing (for example, if you choose the wrong transporter you may find yourself walled in with no hope of escape...)."

In today's update we are only including three of Michael's screens. The others are too advanced and will be given to you at a later date.

Links

• Download the eighth level of Repton
  Download the above file, repton1.rep, and save it in the subdirectory Christmas Repton\data\maps\, overwriting the previous repton1.rep file there. The new file contains all the levels of Tommy's Christmas Repton game. Each can be accessed either by solving the previous level or by entering the password you get when you solve any level (click File – Enter password).

• Download additional levels
  The file maps.zip contains two boxes by Thomas Friedel, one by Chris O'Donnell and three by Michael Nunn. They should be copied into the subdirectory Christmas Repton\data\maps\ (as with repton1.rep above). Use "File – Load map" to start them. No passwords are required.

• Download Tommy's Christmas Repton here
  If you have not started to play the game yet you can download the whole game (149 KB) and follow the instructions given at the bottom of our Chistmas Day page. Note that this contains all eight standard and the six additional levels, so you don't have to retrieve anything to upgrade.

The latest Repton game is available from the Superior Interactive site. Click on the logo on the right to download a trial version. For $19.95 you can get a key that upgrades it to the full version. You may also want to try the PDA and cell-phone versions of Repton from Masabi. The Superior site also has the games Galaforce and Ravenskull.

Full details of our Repton prize competition will be given this weekend. Superior has agreed to donate three dual prizes of Galaforce Worlds and Ravenskull.