27 Jul 07
In this puzzle, the characters who are playing White and Black will be referred to as W and B respectively.
W opens with her favourite first move. B replies by moving the only pawn which allow W to check him on her second move.
W makes a capture instead. B then moves a knight, for her third move, W defends the attacked pawn with a pawn. B captures the pawn, which his opponent has just moved. However, B resigns without waiting to see the next move by W.
Can you discover all the moves made by both players? And explain why Black resigned?
The solution will be posted next week
27 Jul 07
Originally posted by Mephisto2well done! it is always better to explain how you got there
4.QxNg4 will win a piece for white.
here is the solution of that puzzle :-)
The moves were 1.c4 d5 2. cxd5 Nf6 3. e4 Nxe4?? 1-0, on account of 4. Qa4+ winning the knight on e4
If W was able to check B on move two, then she must have opened by advancing her c or e-pawn to free white’s queen or light squared bishop sufficiently to deliver the check. However if W had moved the e-pawn, then B could have allowed checks on b5 or h5 by moving his d- or f-pawns respectively. We were told that B move the only pawn which would allow a check. Therefore W must have advanced her c-pawn instead , and b must hae move his d-pawn in respons ( to allow Qa4+) Did those pawn advance one or two squares? Well since W continued with a capture, the first move could only have been 1.c4 d5 to allow 2.cxd5. We know that on move three, W defends her attacked pawn (on d5) with a pawn move, which can only be 3.e4. At that stage, we also know that B captures white’s e-pawn. So B’s knight on move two must have been 2. …. Nf6 followed by 3. … Nxe4.
that puzzle could be solved by logical deduction but what about the quality of the actual moves?. When I composed this puzzle, I was reminded of two other opening traps
a) 1. e4 c5 2. nf3 d6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Bc2 Nxe4?? 5. Qa4+
b) 1.d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 c6 3. e3?? Qa5+
It would do us no arm to store them well in the memory, because incredibly, there have been numerous instances of players including masters falling into both traps. A little extra care and alertness can stop the list of victim from growing further!
Incidently after 1.c4 the defence 1. … Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 is playable but as the puzzle demonstrated, 1. … d5 is not to be recommended.
Stay tuned for the next puzzle!
27 Jul 07
Originally posted by BagheriThat "only" in the stip is very sneaky. I also thought, like Mephisto, that 1.e4 f5 2.exf5 Nh6 3.g4 Nxg4 was the solution.
well done! it is always better to explain how you got there
here is the solution of that puzzle :-)
The moves were 1.c4 d5 2. cxd5 Nf6 3. e4 Nxe4?? 1-0, on account of 4. Qa4+ winning the knight on e4
If W was able to check B on move two, then she must have opened by advancing her c or e-pawn to free white’s queen or light squared bishop sufficient ...[text shortened]... as the puzzle demonstrated, 1. … d5 is not to be recommended.
Stay tuned for the next puzzle!