Juan de Mairena linked in the comments to last post to a truly great retro-chess problem ! In the position below white is to play and mate in three!
At first this seems wrong as there is an obvious mate in two : 1. Qe2-f1, Kh1xh2 2. Rg3-h3 The ingenious point being that black claims a draw after 1. Qe2-f1 invoking the 50 moves rule which states
The game is drawn, upon a correct claim by the player having the move, if
(a) he writes on his scoresheet, and declares to the arbiter his intention to make a move which shall result in the last 50 moves having been made by each player without the movement of any pawn and without the capture of any piece, or
(b) the last 50 consecutive moves have been made by each player without the movement of any pawn and without the capture of any piece.
I’d love to have the ‘official’ solution to this problem. Here’s what I’ve come up with, spending the better part of the afternoon… It will not be optimal but hopefully isn’t too far off. The crucial part is a maneuver unlocking the lower left-hand cluster of pieces (in particular the ordering of white and black rook). All captures were done with pawns and the final pawn move was b2-b3. Immediately before it the situation might look something like the situation on the left (essential is that the white king should not be too far from its home-square as he will be needed later to block the white rook)
after b2-b3 the bisshop on c1 travels to f4 and the black rook squeezes in to block the white rook so that also the black king can come in and position himself at e2. Then the two rooks evacuate the first row, allowing the black king to go to h1 and then the white king comes in to block the white rook from checking the black king (situation on the left below).
Finally, the white rook comes in and positions itself at e2, afterwards the white king evacuates the first row via b2 and travels to the right-hand upper corner entering via g7. Meanwhile, the black rook comes to g1, the white rook then travels to a3 and the black rook to a2. Then, the white king goes to b7 allowing the bishop to unlock the rook on a8 going to g7, allowing finally the king to go to d8…
Perhaps there is a much simpler and more elegant solution, so if you know, please comment. Oh, btw. how is the original problem solved. Well white first cancels the 50-move rule by 1. Kd8xd7 to continue for example with 2. Rg3-g4, 3. Qe1
No tag for this post.
8 comments
Posted in games
Written on Wed, 05 March 2008 at 9:10 pm
If you liked this post, then consider subscribing to our full RSS feed.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Dr. George Hockney at JPL emailed me to say:
Kd8xd7 fails to mate in 3 because of e5xe4 check. d8xe7 works.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
woops, probably you mean b5xc4. sorry about that, i was more concerned with the 50 move ploy… thanks for pointing it out!
March 6th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
The details can be found in FIDE Album 1971-1973, the author was Nikita Plaksin, and he won 1st AND 2nd Prize Die Schwalbe 1971 (!)
March 6th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
@juanpablo : thanks for the reference (and the problem!). Here is the URL of the solution.
Checked the solution and, pfew, i got the maneuver right!
March 9th, 2008 at 7:49 am
It seems to me that black capturing the pawn at h2 would prevent black from declaring a draw based on the 50 move rule. Surely I’m missing something here. Is it really the case that the player to move is the one who declares the draw?
March 9th, 2008 at 10:00 am
@carl : yes, it is only the player having the move who CAN claim a draw. it is white’s Qf1+ move making a total of 50 moves by each player without captures or pawn moves, so (b) of the 50-move-rule applies.
March 15th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Found chess puzzles may be work of Da Vinci
March 15, 2008
Puzzles may be the work of Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci drew many things, including war machines as well as anatomy sketches. Now it seems he may have also been an early illustrator of the chess puzzle.
Experts say the Renaissance genius may have illustrated the puzzles in a long-lost chess treatise recently recovered in the library of an aristocratic family in northern Italy.
The manuscript was penned around 1500 by Luca Pacioli, a mathematician and friend of Da Vinci, and some experts believe the artist may have drawn the elegant pieces that illustrate the chess puzzles discussed in the treatise.
The treatise, “De Ludo Schaccorum” — Latin for “Of the Game of Chess” — includes more than 100 chess problems that challenge the player to reach checkmate in a certain number of moves. Today such mind-twisters are popular fixtures in newspapers.
From the Associated Press
March 19th, 2008 at 11:16 am
off-topic: Lieven well done for the new archive drop-down lists, that’s a great idea and better visually than the red text you had before.