No. 57, Jan-Mar 2012
R0189 - Kevin Begley
StrateGems, No. 57, Jan-Mar 2012
3+3. Add any white unit to obtain a legal checkmate (Anti-Circe Equipollents)
[8/8/8/7p/4P1kp/6QK/8/8]
Solution
Add wQ/Re5? preceded by Q/Rg5xf5(+wQ/Re5), allows 1…Kf4!, Add Xg5? is not mate either: 1…Kxg5(+bKg6)!. The logical try is:
Add wPe7? Retract: -1.g5xf6(+wPe7) e.p.# f7-f5 -2.K~h3+ etc. This is mate, but the position is not legal: The black Pawns (h4 & h5) can only have arrived there from f7 & h7 (by condition, neither can begin at e7/g7). Thus, it is not possible to retract an additional black Pawn onto f7.
Solution: Add wPh7! Retract: -1.f5xg6(+wPh7) e.p.# g7-g5 -2.Q~g3+ etc
R0190 - Nikolai Beluhov
Dedicated to Alexander Zolotarev
14+14. Release the position
[N2bbN2/2ppBRbp/1p3K1P/1r2P1p1/5k2/3P1q2/1PP1PRPn/3rnB2]
Retract: -1.…Bh8xSg7+ -2.a7-a8S Ra1-d1 -3.a6-a7 Ra4-a1 -4.a5-a6 Re4-a4 -5.a4-a5 Re3-e4 -6.e4-e5 Re5-b5 -7.Bb4-e7 Re7-e5+ -8.Ba5-b4 g6-g5 -9.Bd2xPa5 a6-a5 -10.Bc1-d2 a7-a6 -11.d2-d3 Sd3-e1 -12.h5-h6 Sc5-d3 -13.h4-h5 Se6-c5 -14.Sf5-g7 Sg7-e6+.
The last 27 single moves are completely determined.
R0191 - Nikolai Beluhov & Andrey Frolkin
Dedicated to Michel Caillaud
15+14. Release the position
[qBbN1br1/nbRpnRP1/p1pK1pp1/1p3P2/B2k4/1P1P4/P1PP4/Q1N5]
Retracting b6-b5 too early blocks the North cage. Attempting to unpromote the black Rook straight away, even uncapturing a white pawn on the way, is one move too late. Retract: -1.Qb1-a1# Rh8-g8 -2.f4-f5 Rh5-h8 -3.f3-f4 Rc5-h5 -4.f2-f3 Rc3-c5 -5.Qb2-b1 Rc5-c3 -6.Qa3-b2+ Rc4-c5 -7.Qb4-a3 Rc3-c4 -8.Qa5-b4+ Rc5-c3 -9.Qb6-a5 Rg5-c5 -10.Qa5-b6+ Rc5xPg5 -11.Qb6-a5 Re5-c5 -12.Qa5-b6+ Re1-e5 -13.g4-g5 e2-e1R -14.g3-g4 e3-e2 -15.e2xRd3 Rc3-d3 -16.Sd3-c1.
Disregarding repetition, the last 31 single moves are completely determined.
P0323 - Kevin Begley
For Kostas & Diane
15+15. PG 5 (Anti-Circe Equipollents, Horizontal Cylinder)
[rnbKQbnr/pp1ppppp/8/8/8/6P1/PPPPPP1P/R1BkqBNR]
1.Sxc7(+wSd5)+ (check by wSg1) 1…Qc7+ 2.g3 Kd8 3.Qe8 Kd1 4.Sc3! (not 4.Se3? pinning the bQc7) 4…Qa5 5.Kd8 Qxc3(+bQe1)#.
P0324 - Henryk Grudzinski
12+10. PG 12½
[rn6/p1ppppp1/8/8/4k3/8/1PPPPPP1/1NBQKBrR]
1.a4 h5 2.Ra3 h4 3.Rg3 hxg3 4.a5 gxh2 5.a6 hxg1R 6.Rxh8 Sh6! 7.Rxf8+ Kxf8 8.axb7 Kg8 9.bxc8R Kh7 10.Rxd8 Kg6 11.Rh8 Kf5 12.Rxh6 Ke4 13.Rh1.
Pronkin Rh1 (A)
P0325 - Paul Monsky
13+14. PG 17½
[rn1q3n/pp1ppp2/6pb/2p4k/P6N/6PB/1PPPPP1K/1NB3rR]
) 1.a4 Sh6 2.Ra3 Sf5 3.Rh3 h6 4.Rxh6 c5 5.h4 Sxh4 6.Rc6 Sg6 7.Rxc8 Rxh1 8.Rc6 Sh8 9.Rh6 g6 10.Rh2 Bh6 11.g3 Kf8 12.Bh3 Kg7 13.Kf1 Kf6 14.Kg2 Kg5 15.Sf3+ Kh5 16.Sh4 Rxd1 17.Rh1 Rg1+ 18.Kh2.
The comic line-up on the h file contraindicates the path of white's Rook. (A)
P0326 - Silvio Baier
12+15. PG 18½
[3r1bn1/2pqp2b/1n3k2/1p1p1p2/6pp/8/2PPPPrP/RNB1KBNR]
1.b4 d5 2.b5 Bf5 3.b6 Sd7 4.bxa7 b5 5.a4 Sb6 6.a5 Qd7 7.a6 Rd8 8.a8Q h5 9.Qc6 h4 10.Qh6 Rxh6 11.a7 Bh7 12.a8Q f5 13.Qc6 Kf7 14.Qg6+ Rxg6 15.Ba3 Rxg2 16.Qc1 g5 17.Qb2 g4 18.Qf6+ Kxf6 19.Bc1.
Twofold Prentos theme with white Queens and an additional capture of the original Queen by an officer (on three adjacent squares). Unfortunately, it was not possible to realize the three captures on the same square. (A)
P0327 - Silvio Baier
After Michel Caillaud
11+13. PG 26
[rnbq1bnr/3p4/4k1Kp/7p/7p/1N6/1P3pPP/1RBQ1BNR]
1.d4 e5 2.d5 e4 3.d6 e3 4.dxc7 exf2+ 5.Kd2 b5 6.e4 b4 7.Ke3 b3 8.Sd2 bxa2 9.Rb1 a1Q 10.cxd8B Qa5 11.Bh4 Qd8 12.c4 a5 13.c5 a4 14.c6 a3 15.c7 a2 16.cxd8B a1Q 17.Bdg5 f6 18.e5 fxg5 19.e6 gxh4 20.e7 Kf7 21.e8B+ Ke6 22.Bh5 g6 23.Kf4 gxh5 24.Kg5 h6+ 25.Kg6 Qa5 26.Sb3 Qd8.
An extension of the very famous P1000444. According to our FPG notation (Ed: See the article by S.Baier, N.Dupont & R.Osorio: “Future Proof Games – A challenging new concept” in Die Schwalbe issue 250a, August 2011) the content is CF(B,B,B) & PR(q,q). (A)
P0328 - Unto Heinonen
5+14. PG 26
[bk3q2/pr3p2/p6n/p6p/p5P1/p3Pr2/5b2/2KQ2N1]
1.d4 Sc6 2.d5 Rb8 3.dxc6 dxc6 4.Qd6 exd6 5.Be3 Kd7 6.Bb6 cxb6 7.c4 Kc7 8.c5 dxc5 9.b4 cxb4 10.a4 Bc5 11.Sa3 Qf8 12.0-0-0 Bxf2 13.e3 bxa3 14.Ba6 bxa6 15.h4 Bb7 16.h5 Ba8 17.h6 Rb7 18.Rh5 Kb8 19.Rb5 cxb5 20.hxg7 h5 21.Rd5 Sh6 22.g8Q bxa4 23.Qg4 Rg8 24.Qd1 Rg3 25.Ra5 Rf3 26.g4 bxa5.
This shows that the difficult a-file can be composed. It is combined with white's Phoenix theme by the Queen. (A)