You pay a surprised visit to your granddad, bring him some peppermints
or something like that.
When he is sitting comfortably you grabbed his ancient wooden chessboard.
And with the aid of a hidden chainsaw you cut it in two thus:
and then stick it back together again with glue thus:
“OK Grandad count the squares.”
And if you count the solid squares you get 62, then add the two triangular bits. = 63.
So where did the missing square go?
(see below)
A question Thread 134697 by Tiwaking about why did a player
play e4-e5 in the Closed Sicilian brought back memories of a sequence
of moves that was sure to give you an eye popping opening against
your favourite computer.
After 1.e5 c5 The Sicilian Overture white plays. 2.e5
The computer now plays 2…Nc6 to hit the e-pawn.
You play 3.f4 to protect it, and the box undermines the e-pawn with 3…g5.
(not your everyday human move that one, this is box greed at it’s best ).
You play 4.Bc4 it takes on f4 4…gxf4 and you sac the Bishop.
5.Bxf7+ KxB 6. Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qg4+ Kxe5
And this looks good but I don’t think there is a forced win there.
(Some of you guys with the super-duper kits can dig about for one. )
Though OTB v a human I’d fancy my chances, especially if the human has
not been here before.
So instead of 7.Qg4+ 7.Nf3 looks like the best shot.
Myself and a few others looked at this years ago without a box.
We found winning lines, we found defences…
Again be interested to see what RB4 etc makes of this.
Two short games to show Kings taking early walks to e5 on RHP
dubnikova - hubris RHP 2009
Black sets the Blackburne Shilling Trap. This upset White so much
he sacs two pieces (unsoundly but wins anyway ).
A successful King stroll this time. Black grabs what he can and keeps it!
Kryon13 - Adsum RHP 2009
Stats on RHP
Robbie ‘The Cockney’ Corrobie was wondering what the score was on
the 1400 database with 2 Bishops v 2 Knights.
The pure ending, no other pieces just 2 Bishops v 2 Knights (and of course Kings…. )
This is from the Bishop’s perspective.
White has the two Bishops. 439 games.
Won 216 (49% )
Drew 98 (23% )
Lost 125 (28% )
Black has the two Bishops. 605 games.
Won 320 (52% )
drew 140 (25% )
Lost 145 (23% )
Pure ending 1 Bishop v 1 Knight no other pieces.
White had the lone Bishop 11560 games
Won 4369 (37% )
Drew 2818 (26% )
Lost 4373 (37% )
Black had the lone Bishop 13447 games.
Won 5349 (39% )
Drew 3189 (25% )
Lost 4909 (36% )
Of course there are tactical errors and oversights to take into consideration
but these do balance themselves out.
How does this compare with the good guys. Well I have the Informator
1-93 DB and these are just the games by the good guys. (94,612 games ).
Pure 2 Bishops v 2 Knights games.
White has the two Bishops. 49 games
Wins 29 (59% )
Draw 13 (27% )
Lost 7 (14% )
Black had the two Bishops. 36 games.
Won 11 (30% )
Drew 16 (45% )
Lost 9 (25% )
So Two Bishops in the hands of the good guys carries some clout.
But…
Pure ending 1 Bishop v 1 Knight no other pieces.
White had the Bishop. 842 games.
Won 376 (44% )
Drew 284 (35% )
Lost 182 (21% )
Black had the Bishop 746 games
Won 184 (24% )
Drew 243(34% )
Lost 319 (42% )
Incredible how the wins differ with the colour with the single piece ending.
The lone White Bishop wins (44% ) of the games and yet the lone Black
Bishop only wins (24% ) and has lost on this DB (1966 - 2005 ) (42% ).
What are the good guys doing with their White Knights?
Back on RHP we see the end of a Bishop and Knight ending.
One pawn move brings total disaster.
Slow Racer - vorgod RHP 2008
Finally we see a trap sprung.
Black goes for a sneaky pete and why not.
White misses the in-between trick. 0-1
kinboshi - Vorsyth 2009
Fatwhale (see his comments.)
Has sent a pic showing where the missing square has gone.
Of course he wrong.
The missing square was eaten by a Goblin.
An nasty Goblin wearing a red jacket and blue shoes.
The same Goblin that steals my pawns and pieces during my games.
Hi Wolf.
That was next weeks puzzle.
Where did the extra square come from and what do we call it?
Now you owe me a puzzle.
You missed a trick with the cut up chess board ... slide it the other way and you get 65 squares! Typical GreenPawn not worrying about extra space!
I have posted the picture that FW linked to at the bottom of the piece.
Cheers boys.
Yes, actually they seem to be all squares. But if you got a clean digital cut, this isn't possible without overlapping, as my image shows. The red line would also not compensate all the errors.
What would eventually work is the part cut out by the saw. A digital cut has no width. A saw instead has one. So I think it's just the other way round. It's only possible with a real saw and not possible in the photoshop world.
And to be a real smart ass: If they aren't all squares, then there should be even less than 63 😀
I did not cut out two squares.
I think it's magic.