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sagacity

Posers and Puzzles

15 Jul '05 07:06

sagacity
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15 Jul '05 07:061 edit

White to play and mate in sixty.
THUDandBLUNDER
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15 Jul '05 19:59
Yes, have you got one?
BigDogg
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15 Jul '05 21:06
Originally posted by sagacity
[fen]8/4K3/4NN2/p3p3/rnp1p3/1pk5/bp1n4/qrb1N3[/fen]

White to play and mate in sixty.
This problem is a good example of why the length of the stipulation has little to do with the actual difficulty of the problem. It is a near-zugzwang. Each black Knight is tied to a mate threat, so black must move his Rook or pawns. All that's left is to figure out how to walk the wK over and take away the bR's move so that he's forced to spend a pawn tempo. Then triangulate, lather, rinse, repeat, until Black is forced to self-destruct.

I will leave the actual determination of moves to the less lazy.
sagacity
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15 Jul '05 21:52
Originally posted by THUDandBLUNDER
Yes, have you got one?
Witty. But I'd be much more impressed if you actually offered a solution.

Quite right, BigDogg. Though I do consider it a challenge to work it out step for step. 😉 Mind you, I'm new to chess puzzles, so mostly everything I see is a challenge to me.

If you're too bored with the problem I offered above, try working this out:

Imagine a five-by-five rendition of a chess board. Place five white queens and three black queens on the condensed grid so that no queen is in the line of attack of a queen of the opposite colour.
PigsOnThe7th
Pink 'n Deadly
7th rank, connected
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15 Jul '05 22:53
Originally posted by sagacity
Imagine a five-by-five rendition of a chess board. Place five white queens and three black queens on the condensed grid so that no queen is in the line of attack of a queen of the opposite colour.
BigDogg
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15 Jul '05 23:07
Originally posted by sagacity

Imagine a five-by-five rendition of a chess board. Place five white queens and three black queens on the condensed grid so that no queen is in the line of attack of a queen of the opposite colour.
Since someone beat me to the punch, I'll counter by offering this problem:

Place 8 white Queens on a normal board so that no Queen observes another.
PigsOnThe7th
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15 Jul '05 23:12
Originally posted by BigDoggProblem
Since someone beat me to the punch, I'll counter by offering this problem:

Place 8 white Queens on a normal board so that no Queen observes another.
sagacity
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16 Jul '05 06:50
Since the latter two puzzles have been solved already, I'll offer another:

Construct a game that will leave the position above after Black's sixteenth move.
BigDogg
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16 Jul '05 22:50
Originally posted by sagacity
Since the latter two puzzles have been solved already, I'll offer another:

[fen]8/8/8/8/7k/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR[/fen]

Construct a game that will leave the position above after Black's sixteenth move.
Ugh, I hate 'slaughter' Proof Games. I'll pass on this one.
BigDogg
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17 Jul '05 03:53
Originally posted by BigDoggProblem
Ugh, I hate 'slaughter' Proof Games. I'll pass on this one.
I lied!

1.Nc3 d5 2.Nxd5 f6 3.Nxe7 g6 4.Nxg6 Kf7 5.Nxf8 Ne7 6.Nxh7 Re8 7.Nxf6
Be6 8.Nxe8 Nbc6 9.Nxc7 Kg6 10.Nxe6 Nd5 11.Nxd8 Nc3 12.Nxc6 b5 13.Nxa7
Kh5 14.Nxb5 Ra3 15.Nxa3 Nb1 16.Nxb1 Kh4
BigDogg
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17 Jul '05 04:02
My thought process on the problem above:

- White needs to capture 15 pieces and has only 16 moves to do it. His first move can't be a capture, so every move after the 1st is a capture.
- White's last move must be either Nxg1 or Nxb1. Nxg1 is not very likely, because an N on f3 checks a King. Therefore black would have to use h3 to reach g1, and that requires 5 N moves at least. Ng8-b1 is only 4 moves.
- Black needs 4 K moves and 4 N moves minimum, leaving only 8 moves to move other pieces into the jaws of the wN.

And now it's a game of 'connect the dots' - arrange the black pieces along N lines, eventually leading back to b1. After ~30 min of tries, I found:

A quick count (ignoring Kh4 and Nb1) shows that Black can get this position in 8 moves. Therefore, all that's left is to confirm the scheme works in a real game. (Unfortunately, the resulting game is not exact!)
THUDandBLUNDER
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17 Jul '05 04:47
Originally posted by BigDoggProblem

A quick count (ignoring Kh4 and Nb1) shows that Black can get this position in 8 moves. Therefore, all that's left is to confirm the scheme works in a real game. (Unfortunately, the resulting game is not exact!)
How about:
BigDogg
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17 Jul '05 16:06
Originally posted by THUDandBLUNDER
How about:

[fen]2bq1b2/p1p1pp1p/2n1r3/1p1p2p1/7k/r7/8/1n2K3[/fen]
Looks good to me.

1.Nc3 d5 2.Nxd5 Nf6 3.Nxe7 Nc6 4.Nxc8 Ne4 5.Nxa7 Rg8 6.Nxc6 g5 7.Nxd8 Rg6 8.Nxf7 Re6 9.Nxg5 Ke7 10.Nxh7 Ra3 11.Nxf8 Kf6 12.Nxe6 b5 13.Nxc7 Kg5 14.Nxb5 Nc3 15.Nxa3 Nb1 16.Nxb1 Kh4

This problem is badly cooked!
sagacity
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18 Jul '05 09:31
Originally posted by BigDoggProblem
I lied!

1.Nc3 d5 2.Nxd5 f6 3.Nxe7 g6 4.Nxg6 Kf7 5.Nxf8 Ne7 6.Nxh7 Re8 7.Nxf6
Be6 8.Nxe8 Nbc6 9.Nxc7 Kg6 10.Nxe6 Nd5 11.Nxd8 Nc3 12.Nxc6 b5 13.Nxa7
Kh5 14.Nxb5 Ra3 15.Nxa3 Nb1 16.Nxb1 Kh4
Well done, both of you! In hopes of keeping you entertained, here's another interesting problem I stumbled across:

White to play and win (Losers' Chess rules).

The object, in Losers' Chess, is to either lose all of one's men, king included, or be stalemated. Players must capture an opponent's man if they can, but where there is a choice, can choose which. All other rules are the same as for ordinary chess.

It's a tricky problem to work out initially, but quick to solve once inspiration strikes.
~~MikeXx2020~~
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18 Jul '05 14:00
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