And the winners are...
Our ChessBase Christmas puzzle competition
is over, all eight problems were solved in a gigantic collective
effort by readers all over the world. The solutions
are now up for everyone to see, with charming letters still coming
in every day.
The prize was a copy of our latest Fritz program, personalised
and signed by a world champion. Due to the very large number of
entries we have increased the number to three copies. Two were
chosen at random from all entries received, irrespective of the
date of arrival. The only condition was that three of the eight
problems had to be solved correctly. The winners of these prizes
were M.V.K. Narasinga Rao of India and José Pérez
Quintana of Segovia, Spain. The world champion who drew the
winners and signed the program boxes was Vishy Anand.
There was one more special prize for the best entry sent in.
This was extremly tough to choose, since there were so many, each
with its own charm and intelligence. Some were small monographs
on the art of problem solving, others pyschological profiles of
the solver, others short and witty. Finally we picked a solution
sent in by 17-year-old Med Wassim Krir, known to his friends
as Wiss, from Beni Hassen in Sousse, Tunisia. He receives the
third autographed copy of Fritz 7. His entry is quoted in full
below.
It is impossible to quote some or many of the replies we received,
especially since the solutions are usually quite extensive. Instead
we have blushingly chosen to list some of the positive feedback
we received. Thank you everyone for the very enthusiastic reception
you give to our web activities. We will bring you more problems
and puzzles, and at more regular intervals, in the future.
Frederic Friedel
Feedback
Avraam Fotiadis, Athens, Greece
It was fun, to read something about the freak winterstorm over
Athens in a chess related site – thanks to fellow citizen
Nigel. That weather kept me inside struggling with your puzzles.
Aydin Parmaksiz, Istanbul, Turkey
This contest has showed me that chess is like a big ocean.
Samuel Mandel
You guys have a wonderful web site. In every way, it is a fine
lean machine.
Mikhail Chetverukhin
Please let me win some prize! I solved most diagrams in my head
and put my soul into it! I did not use a computer and solved everything
in my head except for Kasparian study for which I used a chessboard.
Christian Söderberg
Thank you for a great puzzle, it really made my Christmas and
I'm looking forward to new ChessBase puzzles.
Dmitry Gorodin
Conclusion will be short: More puzzles of the sort!
David Ochodnicky
Thanks so much for the great puzzles. It was really thoughtful
of you all to make such a wonderful production out of it. I know
I probably made a lot of errors here but I don't care. It was
fun and I hope the whole family of puzzle fanatics and chess addicts
out there agree.
Michael Halperin
I enjoyed solving these puzzles, but why do you organise this
competion only once in a year?
Øystein Hole
Thanks for some interesting and challenging puzzles! I did not
discover them until yesterday, and so I haven't solved all of
them yet (at least I hope I could solve all in due time!).
Patrick Goette
Thank you for making our brains produce some bubbles during the
end of year's feasts !!!
Raghunathan Pattabi, India
These puzzles occupied me for more than a week. What I loved most
was the excellent presentation with nice introduction! It was
great fun. Thank you. I wish everyone to experience the same satisfaction
and chess thrill while solving these.
Richard A Lowen
Congratulations for the Christmas puzzle promotion and the choice
of the problems.
Dr Hilmar Klaus, Düsseldorf, Germany
A very nice competition! I did not participate because I knew
most of the problems well – no problem for a problem chess
expert and book writer for 30 years now – that would not
be fair. Three of eight solutions were enough to win, but you
must reveal, of course, what was the record? How many solutions
were found by the best solver?! I would guess 5 or 6, not 7 or
8, was the maximum!
As far as we can tell 16 solvers got every single problem,
including the additional parts, essentially right. Hundreds sent
in exactly three solutions, hundreds more four or five. Many sent
in just one correct solution at a time – just to make life
more interesting for the people checking the solutions.
Best entry
Note that the solutions to the problems are
not always included below. Wiss sent us extensive analysis which
to a certain degree is contained in the solutions
on our Christmas Puzzle page.
My name is Med Wassim Krir, they call me Wiss, I am from Beni
Hassen, I live in Sousse in Tunisia, I’ll have soon 17 years
old, I am studying in the pioneer school, I am a chess addict,
I love Sport and computer and I wish we’ll be good friends.
I have to thank you first for the effort you are making for us
especially this year by giving these 8 great puzzles, I spent
a very good week and I’ll never regret that I visited your
website one day, perhaps Tunisia isn’t very known in the
chess field but believe me, we have very good and intelligent
players and the future will confirm this... This is my first e-mail
to you but I am very used to have fun with the puzzles you are
giving us...I want to say that here in Tunisia English is a third
language, but we love it, and I hope I won't make many mistakes
when I'll write the answers, but I can write chess moves only
in French because I fear making mistakes if I write with N, B,
Q, K...
Puzzle1: The talent test
The first move for White to win doesn’t change: 1.b6+ because
any other move will lead to the same failures as the first position
given, but now Black have the option of moving the king to b8,
and white has no other choice than replying by advancing the pawn
till h8 and will have the advantage of one square again to promote
one move before Black but, something has clearly changed now,
if white takes the queen in a1, where will the black king go?
It will lead immediately to a stalemate so White have to do something
before: make the black king move to a, but how...I did this analyse
in less than 10 minutes, but things began being a little bit intricate...after
concentrating for 20 minutes, I had many conclusions: I have one
way to do that, to place the diagonal h2-b8, I have to return
immediately to 8 after doing that but the other queen will always
be on the diagonal from which I come so I must have two ways,
one to enter and the other to return, this is possible by an only
way: De8, De5+ and Dh8, I thought that was the solution and I
replayed the game in my mind an I took nearly three minutes to
realize that there is a missing step: before going to e8, we must
be sure that the other queen won’t be able to block e5, so
I have to go before to g8 leading the BQ to a white case forcing
her to choose between replying on De8 by threatening the queen
or controlling e5, “yes, I found it...” I cried drawing
this conclusion, I felt happy, I found the solution without a
board after less than 35minutes, then I took a paper and a board
and I wrote the whole solution without any problem and I was really
sure of it: “1.b6+ Rb8 2.h4 a5 3.h5 a4 4.h6 a3 5.h7 a2 6.h8D
a1D 7.Dg8 Da2 8.De8 Da4 9.De5+ Ra8 10.Dh8 Dh4+ 11.Dxh4 Rb8 12.Dh8
Ra8 13.Rd7++”
Puzzle 2:
1. Identify this game: The game was between Mr D. Byrne and Mr
Robert James Fischer and it took place in New York in the 1956
Tournament it has a D97 opening, I remember that I have watched
it since my early childhood and I was very impressed by the way
Fischer mated his opponent with, and I said to my father that
day: “Fischer is the best to use the knights in the world,
isn’t he?”...Now, the knight is still my favourite piece,
and my friends ask me always to move the knight whenever I play
chess because they think I make it “magic” (if they
have seen this wonderful game they would never say that!)...Thanks
to Mr R. J. Fischer!!!
2. The deadly knight: The puzzle seemed difficult but it wasn’t,
it was rather delighting...The difference between the two sides
was clear and I realized that I can’t do a preparing move,
I have always to put the black king in check position moving my
knight and taking piece by piece...First I have to take pieces
which can take place on the diagonal a2-g7, the pawn on d6 and
the rook on d8, then I searched the mat possible position, I have
just to block the h rank, I eliminated the pawn on h6, then concentrating
a bit, I found it possible to give access to my rook on a5 to
the rank of dead so I took the rook on g5 and the pawn on e5,
now, only the two knights are remaining now, one will be obliged
to go on g6 protecting his king from the double check caused by
the white knight when moved to it after being on e5, and the other
can be taken after that by the rook on h1, and this is the end...I
loved this game and I appreciated this power of the knight devastating
all the black field without any serious opposition, but it was
too short for me, it took nearly 25 minutes and I could find it
faster if I concentrated better...The solution so is: “ 1.Cxd6+
Rh8 2.Cf7+ Rg8 3.Cxd8+ Rh8 4.Cf7+ Rg8 5.Cxh6+ Rh8 6.Cf7+ Rg8 7.Cxg5+
Rh8 8.Cf7+ Rg8 9.Cxe5+ Rh8 10.Cg6+ Cxg6 11.Txh7+ Rxh7 12.Th5++”
Puzzle 3: Child prodigy
This is the kind of puzzles I can’t be sure of its solution…identifying
a baby is extremely difficult, personally I can’t recognize
myself at that age, I think all babies look alike but I think
he is Gary Kasparov... You said he “went on to become a world-class
grandmaster”, “A lot of young players show great talent
at a very early age, but after that you hear nothing more about
them. It is quite remarkable when one goes to the very top, as
was the case with the child prodigy shown in our historical pictures”
and that he “can be seen playing in numerous top GM tournaments
all over the world today”... I know that he won the “world
junior” at the age of 17, and that he became the youngest
world champion in 1985 (my birth’s year) when he was only
22, he has surely reached the very top you talked about and I
am always reading about the many good games he’s playing
everywhere (I can mention his last victory over Mr Kramnik, the
world champion)...I repeat that I’m not sure but I hope he’s
Mr Gary, my favourite contemporary player.
Puzzle 4: Study Artist
This is the best puzzle I have ever solved (thank you), it’s
difficult, beautiful and amusing, the real problem I found is
that the first move isn’t evident and Black has always many
options to answer…about 40 minutes were necessary to find
the mat nearly whatever black moves and other 5 minutes to find
all the ways and notate this.
Puzzle 5: How did that happen?
I think his is the most mysterious puzzle in the world, I have
never seen this type before, and it seemed impossible but I was
sure there was a solution so I spent nearly one hour to find the
hole solution after remembering what my chess teacher said to
me one day (I don't know how to thank him for what he did for
me): “To make the powerful double check you have two possible
ways, move a piece making check and discovering another piece
doing the same thing, or using the capture when passing”...
If it’s white’s turn, the king have to be on b3 in a
position of double check with no pawns on the board, impossible...so
it’s black’s turn, but what did white played, surely
with the king after being on b3, then I put the white’s pawn
on c4 and the black’s one on b4 and the solution was found:
- The king was on c3.
- The last moves requested are 1.c4 b4xc3+ 2.Rxc3.
Puzzle 6: Great American Composers
I am more than sure that if I didn’t noticed immediately
that the position of the king and the rook in the two problems
allowed castling, I would have spend much more time to find the
solutions...
Samuel Loyd problem: I spent only 6 minutes to realize that I
can mate in three by sending my f-rook for the 4th line or upper
and if he replies by taking the h rook, but the problem was that
he can take the pawn, then I’ll rook and if I have placed
from the beginning my f rook on f4 he’ll be obliged to move
to h3 and Game Over, this took 20 minutes, I spent nearly half
an hour to be sure of this.
W. A. Shinkman problem: I started by castling and things would
have been clear: I have to bring the black king next to the white
one because moving my king or using only the rook and a pawn can’t
lead to a mat in 8, but this wasn’t evident...perhaps it
seems simple when we read this but it took nearly 45 minutes to
find the solution, I even doubted that castling wasn’t the
first move and I tried many things using only my rook and the
only mat in 8 I found finally was this (it’s really beautiful).
I am sorry I couldn’t continue solving your puzzles because
I have to return preparing my studies, but this is sufficient,
I enjoyed extremely my time and I am waiting for the next year
holiday and its puzzles, thank you very, very, very much.
One more remarkable entry was the following
Christmas Puzzle Diary
sent in by Christian Söderberg
My ChessBase Christmas diary
December 25, 2001:
In the first problem I realized that black's only chance of drawing
was to get stalemated, and that moving the white king away from
c8 gives black's king an extra square to hide in, so although
I'm not a good player I found the answer to this question in about
the same time as Kasparov, i.e. 15 seconds. Mind you though, I
wouldn't survive 20 moves against Kasparov!
The second problem was very much more difficult. I read the problems
at about 2.30 am on Christmas Day (night?), when I was about to
go to bed, so I decided to try to solve the second problem in
bed - in case I would have any sleeping problems :-). In the morning
I found what I thought was the solution, lying in bed (i.e. without
a board, as you suggested). However, when I later in the afternoon
checked my 'solution' (the 7.Qe8-'solution' mentioned above) with
board and pieces I saw that 7...Qg7 saved black. So I removed
the board and went to Burger King to eat and have a new shot at
the problem. Sitting at Burger King I found another 'solution'
(without a board), this time overseeing 8.Qf8? Qa3 9.Qe8 Qd6+=.
When I checked this line upon my return to home I saw my new misstake,
removed the pieces but kept the board – this time solving
the problem in a few minutes.
My total time for solving the problem is very difficult to estimate,
I did a lot of other things inbetween (amongst other things I
wrote a small compiler), my best guess is that I spent somewhere
between half an hour and three quarters of an hour solving the
problem.
December 26, 2001:
Part 1: Looking at the knight's tour I first suspected it was
the famous Bogoljubov-Alechin game, Hastings 1922, but there blacks
knight finds his way into the d3-square, which is not the case
in the present game (also it is the queens knight which is most
active it that game). Depressed that I couldn't think of another
great game with such an active black knight I sat for a few minutes
before looking at the knights movements once again. I then realized
that the c3-e2-d4-movement must be a discovered attack, and suddenly
it dawned on me – it is Byrne-Fisher of the 1956 Rosenwald
tournament! I've always considered blacks white-colored bishop
as the 'MVP' in that game (at least it was Be6!! which made the
game immortal), but of course the knight is at least equally important!
I must say I had a considerable advantage in solving this problem
- I never received any tutoring as a child, so I didn't have that
many games to chose among!
December 27, 2001:
Looking at the mother I suspect it is Nigel Short (whose father,
by the way, seems to be the genetic equivalent of the identity
operator). The advanced state of mayhem seen on the board is another
clue pointing in the direction of Nigel Short.
December 28, 2001:
I've seen this one before, but it took me quite a while to remember
the solution. White wins beautifully after 1.Ne8+ Rxf4 (or 1...gxf4
2.Ng7+ Kg6 3.Lf5#, or 1...Kg6 2.h5+ Rxh5 (2...Kxh5 3.Sg7+ Kg6
4.Lf5# as before) 3.f5+ Rxf5 4.g4 Rf5-anywhere 5.Bf5+ Rxf5 6.Ng7
and 7.gxf/h5) 2.Ng7+ Kg6 3.h5+ Rxh5 4.Lf5+ Rxf5 5.g4 and the g-pawn
delivers the coup de grâce the next move. This is truly
a fantastic study!
December 29, 2001:
This was very difficult. Obviously something must have been standing
on b3 or c2, but with a white king on b3 it's hard to se how the
black rook and bishop could give check standing the way they do.
Both pieces can't have moved at the same time, so something must
have been removed from both b4 and c4, and only en-passant captures
and castling vacated two squares simultaneously. Castling is right
out, which leaves us with the en-passant capture.The only way
to obtain an en-passant move is by putting a black pawn at b4
and a white pawn at c2...
This means white must have played c2-c4 and black answered with
bxc4ep+. As there are no black pawn on c3 white must have made
his capture on c3 (at the same time giving check the white king)
before resigning (by the way, it seems reasonable to argue with
his resignation - even I could have held Kasparov to a draw in
the final position!).
December 30, 2001:
Loyd's problem: I'm very proud to have found the solution to
this problem almost at once. I suspected that castling would enter
into the solution, and then the rest isn't that difficult: 1.Rf4!
Kxg3 (1...Kxh1 2.Kf2 Kh2 3.Rh4#) 2.O-O Kh3 3.R1f3#
Shinkman's problem: In swedish "Skinka" means ham,
which is the centrepiece of the Swedish Christmas menu, so Shinkman
seems appropriate for a Christmas puzzle. Once again I assumed
castling was on the menu, and the only reason why O-O-O would
be better than Rd1 and a simple march up the board with the king
is that the king on c1 is closer to a2. After I realized this
I found the solution: 1.O-O-O Kxa7 2.Rd8 Kxa6 3.Rd7 Kxa5 4.Rd6
Kxa4 5.Rd5 Kxa3 6.Rd4 Kxa2 7.Rd3 Ka1 8.Ra3#. I'm pretty sure this
is the 'real' solution (if it is the 'cooked' solution I'd love
to see the real one :-).
December 31, 2001:
I've found one solution (actually two, the mirror-image of the
given solution being the other):
W: Kg6, Qh5, Pf6,h7
B: Kh8
Using the above solution as a starting point it is quite easy
to put all white's pieces on the board with the same effect, for
example:
1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 f6 3.exf6 Bc5 4.Qxd7+ Kf8 5.Qxg7+ Ke8 6.Qxg8+
Kd7 7.Qxh7+ Ke8 8.Qxh8+ Kd7 9.Qxd8+ Ke6 10.Qxc8+ Kf7 11.Qxc7+
Kg8 12.Qxb8+ Kh7 13.Qxb7+ Kh8 14.Qxa8+ Kh7 15.Qxa7+ Kh8 16.Qxc5
Kg8 17.Kd2 Kh8 18.Ke3 Kg8 19.Kf4 Kh8 20.Kg5 Kg8 21.h4 Kh8 22.h5
Kh7 23.h6 Kg8 24.Kg6 Kh8 25.Qh5 Kg8 26.h7+ Kh8=
This game could surely be shortened a bit (letting the white
king capture some pieces on his way to g6 etc).
January 1, 2002:
I solved all the problems above the same day they were published,
but decided to deal with this one a bit later. Then January passed
with lighting speed, and I suddenly realized I hadn't finished
the puzzle yet. Fortunately you had set 24:00 Fiji-time to be
the deadline, so I had some time to make a feeble attempt (though
I'm very tired and not really satisfied with my solution).
One idea is to send an empty box with a non-locked padlock to
the final receiver (although it is possible that the courier steals
the unlocked padlock as well). The receiver then sends her own
opened padlock in a box, and seals the box with my padlock (to
which I, of course, have the key). Thereafter I put the valuable
in the box and lock it with her padlock.
There must be a better solution, but I'm to tired to find one
right now.
January 31, 2002: Aftermath
Thank you for a great puzzle, it really made my Christmas and
I'm looking forward to new ChessBase puzzles.
