Flavio Quintiliano, Sao Paulo, Brazil
The Akiba Rubinstein puzzle contains a known mate sequence, with
the Black king on the side rank getting mated by the only White
pawn. It is quite popular among club players. The position appears
for instance in a study from 1927, but I think it was already
known in the 19th century.
P. Farago, Keleti Ujsag 1927
White to play and win
Solution: 1.Ke7 Kg7 2.Ke6 [2.Bf5? g4 3.hxg4
h3 4.Be4 h2 5.Ke6 h1Q 6.Bxh1 Kxg6] 2...Kxg6 3.Bh5+ Kxh5
4.Kf5 g4 5.hxg4 mate.
My favorite study with this kind of mate is the one by A. Kakovin.
A. Kakovin, Shakhmaty v SSSR, 1940
White to play and win
The solution is 1.Rd8 Ba5 2.Rd5 bxa4! 3.Rxa5 b5 4.Kc3
Kb7 5.Kd4! (5.Kb4 Kb6) 5...Kb6 6.Kd5 Kxa5 7.Kc5
b4 8.axb4 mate.
The same idea has been exploited in another study:
J. Fritz, 2. hm Práce, 1950
White to play and win
Solution: 1.Rd8+ Nc8 2.Be6 a6 3.Bxc8 Ba5 4.Bd7+ Ka7
5.b6+ cxb6 6.Bxa4 b5 7.Rd5 bxa4 8.Rxa5 b5 9.Kxe7 Kb6 10.Kd6 Kxa5
11.Kc5 b4 12.axb4 mate.
Markus Bindig, Reinsdorf, Germany
I used a computer on the second problem as suggested. It's actually
not that hard to find with Fritz once you've figured out that
black gets in Zugzwang. Fritz gives 0.00 as an evaluation for
quite a long time, however, that's due to it's horizon problem,
as it can't easily calculate 33 moves ahead there. You should
include more of those puzzles which allow computer-usage. That
saves me from thinking as I dislike doing endgame studies on
my own anyway ;)
IM Vinicius Marques, São Paulo, Brazil
Very nice the study made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of
Jan Timman. Well actually i stayed in my home instead of going
to pub with some friends after i saw this very interesting diagram
and the solution is very beautiful and very interesting as well.
Nevenincs Alkesz, Palinka, Hungary
This was a funny puzzle, I 've found the solution in a few minutes,
but I must mention that the Hungarian Artur Havasi composed a
miniature with the same kind of queen maneuvre about 100 years
ago. Here is it:
A Havasi, Deutsche Schachzeitung 1914
White to play and win
The solution goes like this: 1.h6+ Kxh6 2.Kf6 Qh5 3.Qd3
Qe8 [3...g4 4.Qd2+ Kh7 5.Qc2+ Kh6 6.Qc1+ Kh7 7.Qc7+
leads to mate] 4.Qh3+ Qh5 5.Qf5 d3 [5...g4 6.Qf4+
Kh7 7.Qc7+ as in the the previous line] 6.Qxd3 Qe8 7.Qh3+
Qh5 8.Qf5 d4 9.Qd3 Qe8 10.Qh3+ Qh5 11.Qf5 d3 12.Qxd3 Qe8 13.Qh3+
Qh5 14.Qf5 for the last time and black has no useful
move left, mate will soon be delivered! I think this is as elegant
as your puzzle.
James Leibert, Sydney, Australia
The trick is the zugzwang manoeuvre Qd7+ ...Qb5 Qd4+ ...Qd4 Qd3!
after which Black is forced to move a pawn to the vulnerable
g4 square and White repeats the recipe until there are no more
pawns and White must play ...b5 when mate can be forced as the
b5 escape square is blocked. Fritz couldn't see it after a lot
of thought, but I noticed that the quiet move 6.Qd3! didn't actually
lose.
Srinath, Pune, India
I was familiar with the first problem. A beauty, undoubtedly.
But the second one steals the show. The beauty lies not so much
in the final position, or in the spectacular moves (the lack
of them, rather), but in the ingenious concept. How on earth
do people come up with something like this, I cannot imagine!
Two suggestions: Can you please publish an article sometime
on the thought processes of these weird geniuses who give birth
to such puzzles (or is it so damn simple that we "normal"
people are the geniuses who cannot think something so lowly?
And secondly: four hrs for the repton puzzle was amazing. You
should publish an interview with Carlos Adán Bonilla,
especially, what does he eat? etc. Won't you please publish the
solution for the "very hard level", at least the section
with the key.
Murali S. Vajapeyam, Boston, MA, USA
No wonder you say "feel free to use computers". It
takes a lot of moves for white to win, and computers have a hard
time calculating everything.
Kerem Yunus Camsari, Ankara, Turkey
When one uses computers I think even the toughest puzzles seem,
yes not become but seem, a little bit easier to me. Because when
you analyse a variant you definetely know that you are not overlooking
anything trivial.
Dennis Monokroussos
What are such problems called, mini-monsters? There's a set maneuver
that's repeated many times, as in a monster, but the move length
is relatively low, at least compared to Blathy's 200+ move compositions.
Mohammed Mansoor Peerbhoy, Pune, India
That's a most amazing problem you've got there (queen + 7 pawns
versus queen). And this time, I've managed to solve it (no computers,
just my good old chess board, and my buddy Arnold). The second
one was awesome. I spent quite some time trying out variations
in which the black king lands on a6 (between those 3 queenside
pawns), the black queen on b5, and the white queen on c8 mate,
but that didn't work. Also, forcing the black king into h6 (behind
those 3 king side pawns), doesn't look too feasible. It did seem
that there ought to be a killer move (a zwischenzug that renders
black helpless), but is not a check. Then I found the solution.
Thanks for the amazing puzzle, keep them coming.
Amit, Kulkarni, Minneapolis, US
I had seen the mate in 4 (starting with Rh3+!) ending "Won
by Rubinstein" in a chess column in a Russian magazine "Sputnik"
that used to be available in India. The author of the chess column
was Issac Linder. I have only this information. Does that ring
any bell?I will also take this oppurtinity to say that this site
is excellent and doing a lot of good to chess.
Valer Eugen Demian, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Extremely exciting puzzles as usual; thank you very much! Computer
engines are not useful in the second example because of the horizon
effect. You need to find the idea for this "windmill"
setup and all those extra pawns on the board (now it makes sense
why they are 3 and all are along "g-") are probably
rendering the engines useless.
Tomek Rej, Sydney
I solved puzzle two in around 5 minutes. I hadn't seen the puzzle
before, but i knew what the idea must as i had seen similar studies.
I think the key move to find is Qd3 as it is the perfect waiting
move. The rest was easy. Anyway I fed the position into the computer
(Fritz 5) and unsurprisingly it couldn't find the win until it
was about 5 moves till black has to give up the queen. I think
this may be one of those positions which unless the computer
can calculate many moves ahead it won't be able to solve, as
it would never look for a move like Qd3 and just force the draw.
Misailovic Darko, Paris, France
It was a very nice puzzle, the kind that chess programs like
:) I spent a lot of time to find the killing (at first look "very
loosing") move Qd3 which open the gates for white. For me,
Chessbase is the the chess site. Without it my long night working
shifts would be so empty. So please continue your hard work.
Michael Nyman, Tualatin, OR
I solved the Novomesky/Siran,D, 2002 puzzle, pretty easily, really.
It's just a matter of shuttling the queen around, gobbling up
black's pawns. The key is that if the White queen is on d3, the
black queen is stuck on b4, and black has to move the pawns.
With a series of checks, the white Queen can always take a pawn
and return to d3 such that it's black's move. After black runs
out of pawn moves, white wins.
Arnel de Castro
I like your lastest puzzles especially the 2nd puzzle coz it
forced me to open my chessboard and do the analysis and after
20 minutes (more or less) I was able to solve it when I found
the move 6.Qd3!!! -- the key move. Thank you ChessBase and more
power!
Daniel, Arceo, Virginia, USA
I found your puzzles really entertaining. This is my first time
to solve one of your puzzles and I'm proud I was able to find
the answer at work without the aid of a chess program and a chessboard.
I spent like 45 minutes to crack it, by just staring at the diagram.
FM Maxim Devereaux, Hereford, England
I've been staring at the diagram of the Novomesky/Siran study
for about ten minutes now, and have managed to solve it without
the help of a computer or board. It's not really that hard once
you spot the idea. I don't know without checking what my Fritz
6 would make of it, but since 69 ply are required to mate or
winning material advantage, and its analysis module seems to
stop at 47 ply, I imagine that even given infinite time it cannot
solve this in one go from the start position as I did. Score
one for the human!
Mathieu Cloutier, Montreal
The solution is based on a ridiculously repetitive zugzwang with
the white queen checking on d7 and d4/g4 and zugzwanging black
by going to d3. It is not that complicated to see when you have
a computer to help you find that there is at most one or two
choices here and there and that anyway other moves achieve nothing
or loose. It took me about 5 minutes on my computosaurus rex
(pentium III) and with Fritz 4.32. Still, quite a tango by the
white queen! I would call it "Dirty dancing III: zugzwangs
nights"
Susan Polgar
Puzzle 1: Solved in 1.2 second. Puzzle 2: Solved in 14 seconds.
Christos Koutsambelas, Athens
Really exciting that there are problems on which the dry calculation
force of the computer proves inadequate.
Philip, Swetz, Flowermound, USA
I am unable to find the solution to the Novomesky/Siran,D, 2002
puzzle located on puzzle page 20. It is driving me crazy! :)
Please help.
Brian Stewart, San Jose, CA
White mates in 42! Thankfully, I remembered your advice from
a while back, that when you have a multi-pawn puzzle, most of
the pawns are just there to mark time. So I eliminated all but
the pawns at a7, a5, b6, and e3. Once I solved that, I added
in the pawn at e4, then the pawn at g5. After that, the pattern
for the two remaining pawns became clear.By the way, I freely
admit that I used a computer to find the various mating patterns,
but hey, it was your invite after all! Thanks for the good puzzle.
Jerry Slominski, Nebraska
Your puzzle is in error. This is now solution of white to win.
You said you'd would have solution posted by 'next week' but
that has lapsed. Please validate solutions before posting puzzles.
Richard Price, Mobile, USA
Punctuality is professional, it has been over a week since you
asked for the answer to puzzle #20.
