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Puzzle Contest 2006
January 1st, 2006 |
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Solutions
to the Christmas puzzles 2005
Before we come to our Puzzle Contest for 2006 we would
like to remind our readers about the intention and the philosophy
behind the contest. The prizes we are awarding are not intended
to be given to the "usual suspects", the chess
and problem specialists who can solve (or find by research)
anything we can set before them. They are for distribution
to lucky winners amongst the tens of thousands of readers
who have been enjoying our Christmas Chess Puzzle week.
Most are not specialists, and many are daunted by the complexity
of some of the problems we have presented. So: the prizes
given below will be given to winners drawn from all readers
who participate (and provide the minimum number of solutions
required).
Puzzle Contest 2006
We start with selfmates, the ancient puzzle form which
was defined in installment
four. After we had two mishaps with alternate solutions
in problems by Hasselkus
and Lindgren,
here are two puzzles for which we are reasonably certain
that they are flawless. You should not have too much difficulty
with them, since they work on the same principle as the
cooked ones mentioned above. Just study those and you will
know how to solve these two.
Puzzle 1: Tivadar Kardos, Feenschach
(v) 1958
Selfmate in ten moves
wKd2,Qa1,Nc6,d6,Be2,Rf5,Pa7,b7,c7,d7,e7,f7,g7,h7/bKa6,Qg1,Na4,h4,Bb6,c2,Ra2,g5,Pb5,c5
Addendum: The intended solution to the
above problem is 1.a8R+ Ba7 2.Rxa7+ Kb6 3.b8R+ Kxc6
4.c8R+ Kxd6 5.d8R+ Ke6 6.e8R+ Kxf5 7.Qf6+ Kxf6 8.f8R+ Kg6
9.g8R+ Kh6 10.h8R+ Bh7#. Beautiful, no? Well, less
than an hour after we published these problems we received
two messages from selfmate killer Arie Haenel,
Jerusalem. At 19:15h CEST he wrote: "I think that I
will 'cook' (that's the term, isn't it?) the Kardos problem!
I'm still checking if my eight moves solution works."
Then, 16 minutes later, we got the second message: "I
check that all black moves are the only ones possible, so
the puzzle is COOKED!" Attached was the alternate solution:
1.a8Q+ Ba7 2.Bxb5+ Kb6 3.Qxa7+ Kxc7 4.b8N+ Kxd6
5.Rf6+ Kd5 6.d8Q+ Ke4 7.Qe5+ Rxe5 8.Qd3+ Bxd3#.
At 21:51 Zvi Mendlowitz of Petah Tiqwa,
Israel sent in the same solution ("It's difficult to
compose thes long selfmate"). And shortly after midnight
Themis Argirakopoulos of Athens, Greece
sent the following dual in the intended solution: 6.Rc6+
Kxf5 7.Qf6+ Ke4 8.e8R+ (8.e8Q+ Re5 9.Bd3+ Bxd3#) 8...Re5
9.Bd3+ Bxd3#. Oh dear, what will these guys do
next? Prove that selfmates don't exist? Let's see how long
the next example survives.
Puzzle 2: János Czak, The
Problemist 1995
Selfmate in ten moves
wKc1,Qh3,Nh6,Be6,f6,Rc6,g5,Pa7,b7,c7,d7,e7,f7,g7,h7/bKa5,Qh1,Nb2,f1,Bf5,Rb4,Pf4
The third puzzle is the lovely lose-a-move problem by one
of the greatest magicians of unorthodox chess puzzles. All
the help you need can be found on our
Puzzle 3: Karl Fabel, Caissa 1948
How many moves to mate?
wKf7,Nc1,d3,Rd1,Pa2,e6,g6,h5/bKf1,Qg1,Ne1,h1,Bf2,f8,Rg2,h8,Pa3,a7,e7,g3,g7,h2,h6
The next puzzle was composed by the same author as our
Christmas
Day study, Karl Behting (or Betins), who was born in
1867 in Berzmuiza, Russia. This example of his extraordinary
creativity is not so difficult, but you must admit it contains
three completely unexpected moves.
Puzzle 4: K.K. Behting, Bohemia
1908
White to play and win
Puzzle 5: A logical card trick
Here's a little non-chess puzzle for readers who cannot
handle the somewhat weird problems we have been presenting
in this series. This one is quite straightforward and logical,
and you can verify your solution by actually performing
the experiment yourself. The problem was given to me by
my son Tommy on a Boxing Day stroll at the Baltic Sea. It
is not necessary for you to know how long it took me to
solve.
Someone takes a standard deck of 52 cards, counts
off 17 cards and inverts them, so that they are now face
up on top of the deck. After that he (or she of course)
mixes the cards throughly, so that the 17 face up cards
are randomly distributed in the deck. Now he (or she)
hands the deck over to you. Your task is to make two piles,
in each of which the same number of cards are facing upwards.
Let us make sure there are no misunderstandings: you must
make exactly two piles using all the cards in the deck.
They do not have to be equal, and the exact number of cards
facing upwards is not specified, just that it must be the
same in each pile. If one pile has eight cards facing upwards,
the other must also have eight facing up.
Mystified by the problem? Ah, yes, we forgot to mention
one little detail: you have exactly ten seconds to make
the two piles. Twenty if you are not adroit with playing
cards, five if you are a card shark. So obviously you must
find a strategy that you can execute very quickly. And which
is 100% reliable. It's easier than you think.
Prizes
This year there are three prizes for our Christmas Puzzle
Contest. One consists of a copy of our latest Fritz 9 program,
signed by the participants of the FIDE
World Championship in San Luis – all eight of
them. The second is a copy of Fritz 9 signed by someone
who did not play in this world championship, but in many
before: Garry Kasparov. And finally there will be a third
prize that we will not disclose for the moment. It is a
surprise prize.
To take part in the Christmas Puzzle Contest 2006 you must
send in reasonable solutions to at least two of the above
puzzles. "Reasonable" means we are not going to
toss any submissions into the waste basket on minor technicalities,
as long as we see you got the general idea.
The prize winners will be drawn from all the eligible submissions
we receive. The last prize will be for nice comments or
submissions. The closing date for the contest is Sunday,
January 22, 2006. Please use the following form to submit
your solutions and comments:
Puzzle
Contest 2006 – submissions
Frederic Friedel
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