Christmas Puzzle Contest January 2003
Click "Stop" on your browser to stop the music and "Refresh" to start it.

Our 2002 Christmas Puzzle week lasted from December 25, 2002 to January 1, 2003. You now have the rest of the month of January to take part in our special Christmas Puzzle Contest. It contains a number of unsolved problems from the Christmas week and allows you to win some very interesting prizes. The facetiously complicated details on how to participate are given below.

Prize puzzle 1

T. R. Dawson

White to play

The above position occurs in a game of chess. After studying it for a while Black decides to resign. White, who is in check, says that his opponent should not give up so quickly. "But I am bound to lose, there is nothing I can do – or for that matter you," says Black. But White insists: "I'll bet you $100 that I can lose this game!" So the two seal the bet and White actually manages to lose. How does he do that? [No, it's nothing like resigning, losing on time, being disqualified, etc. White wagered he would lose, and he lost fair and square. The solution, which requires some lateral thinking, must cause you to smile. Otherwise you haven't got it.]

This puzzle position is taken from our December 25th page.

Prize puzzle 2

J. Moravec, La Strategie, 1913

White to play and win

Normally it is fairly easy for the weaker side to draw in a position like this, since White will have to sacrifice the rook to prevent a black pawn from queening. For instance you can try 1.Kxg7 h4 2.Ra3 Kg2 3.Kg6 h3 4.Ra2+ Kg1 5.Kg5 h2 6.Ra1+ Kg2 7.Ra2+ (7.Kg4 h1Q 8.Rxh1) 7...Kg1 draw.

This puzzle position is taken from our December 27th page.

Prize puzzle 3

Samuel Loyd, Boston Globe, 16.08.1876

White to play and mate in three moves

This is a truly incredible position by the greatest problem composer of all times. It is taken from our December 28th page.

Prize puzzle 4

Frederic Friedel, Computerschach & Spiele, February 2002

Helpmate in five moves

This puzzle was composed to demonstrate some of the principles of helpmates described in our December 29th installment. After reading it you should be able to solve both parts of the problem:

1. How does Black help White to mate him (Black) in five moves? Remember it is Black to play in the diagram position.

2. Originally the author had placed the black king on b4 (instead of b7), which is in some ways more harmonious to the solution of the puzzle. Why did he have to discard this version and instead use the one shown in the diagram?

Prize puzzle 5

K. Hannemann, Dagens Nyheder, 1933

White to play and mate in 1, 2, 3 and 4

This problem was part of our January 1st page. White to play and mate in one move. Now that is really simple to solve, isn't it? Once you have found the solution you must search for a mate in two moves. Then for one in three and then one in four. It is surprising that in each case there is only one way to mate, and we are sure you will be truly amazed by the solutions once you have found them.

Prize puzzle 6

In each of the puzzle pages you heard festive music playing in the background. What was the tune on our January 1st page? It is also playing in the background of this page. You may have to listen to the improvisation for a while before you identify the original composer and the name of the piece.

What you can win

If you take part in our 2002 Christmas Puzzle competition you can win two valuable prizes:

1. The general prize. This is a copy of our top program Fritz, signed by a world chess champion. This prize is for anyone who participates in the competition. It does not depend on getting all the answers right. Just two reasonably correct solutions will suffice. The winner is determined by lots. 2. The professional prize. This is a copy of the book "Kasparov against The World", autographed by Garry Kasparov. It is a very instructive and highly readable book and unique in that each chapter is devoted to a single position. To be eligible for the professional prize you must try to solve all the problems as well as you can. We will put the best ten or twenty answers into a hat and draw the winner.

How to participate

• All solutions must be received before the 1st of March 2003. The order in which the solutions are received is irrelevant, so you don't need to hurry. Take your time and get it right.

• Do not send multiple entries. If more than two are received from any single person they will all be ignored.

• Send your solutions in plain text as part of the message. Do not attach Word or other documents to your solution. (If you write your solution in Word, press Ctrl-A to mark the entire text, switch to your mail client and press Ctrl-V to insert the text).

• Give your full name and place of residence. Without this your entry cannot be considered. We reserve the right to quote your solution on this web site, in full or abridged, with your name and place of residence given. If you supply information on your professional status that might also be used.

• It would be good if you would tell us what you think about the puzzles. Do you like this kind of thing, were the problems too easy or too hard? How do you like our web site in general, should we be doing something different?

• Please send your answers to our puzzle department. The subject line must be "Christmas prize puzzle 2002".

• Solutions and prize winners will be announced on March 15. We reserve the right to award more prizes than the two announced above.

Solutions and results

Frederic Friedel