The FIDE website item that a set of stamps had been produced for the Baku Olympiad caught my eye.
Only whilst writing this posting did I notice that the chess positions aren't stamps: they must be mere 'decorations' for envelopes. By the time I had noticed this, I had wondered 'which games the two positions are' and 'why the particular positions had been chosen'. I had guessed, wrongly, that the positions were from the late Vugar Gashimov or from a leading present day Ajerbaijani player, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
The first one is today's puzzle:
Black to play and win
Solution
Oddly, this game does not feature an Ajerbaijani player, but is from an old Hungarian championship, the game being Honfi v Csom 1973. Quite why this position has been chosen I cannot guess.
Anyway, 1…Qg4! is very strong, taking advantage of the point that e1 is mined: 2 Ke1 Ng2+ forks and wins.
I haven't been able to source the second position. {I only have Megabase 2012, with my search augmented by TWIC}
Clearly, some type of Open Ruy Lopez, but how did Queens come off? I suspect the position is composed. I can't see a logical way in which the position could have arisen. Can any reader?
Posted with BlogsyAnother puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.
White to play and mate Black.
Gruenfeld v Tarrasch, Baden-Baden 1925
Make sure you look beyond the first move, and find the best continuation.
Solution
When you notice that the Ne6 is tied to f8 (Qf8+) and the Qd7 is tied to defending the Ra4, and the King is in a mating net (the language of being tied and nets being CJS Purdy's), you look to bring more pieces to the party, and 1 Bh4! is natural.
I was lazy, and saw the win after 1…h5 (2 Bf6+ Kh7 3 Rg7+ Ng7 4 Qf8+ Bg8[] 5 Bg7+ Kh7[] 6 Bf6 with the idea of 7 Qh6mate), and didn't look at the more restrictive 1…h6.
But I should have, because Gruenfeld then played the lovely 2 Qf8+!! tightening the net. 2…Nf8 3 Bf6+ and mate follows easily.
Nice.
A break for a day from my series of postings from Matni Udar.
One of my habits is to cut and keep cuttings of problems that I can't solve. A treasure chest for a later day. Some I keep in a filing cabinet, a few I keep in the pocket of my Kindle case. Why do I mention this? I am posting this blog whilst on holiday in Turkey, and was reading a book on my Kindle, but at times dipped into my cache of problems. Some turn out to be trite, and I wonder why I missed the solution first time round, others stump me for a while long, and these I will post on my blog. This is one of them.
Today's is really tough, at the limit of my ability: I wonder now long Peter Svidler took to see the win?
White to play and win
Svidler v Samhouri, Tromsø Olympiad, 2014
Puzzle seen in Chess magazine, October 2014
Solution
So, I knew it would be a capture, and I knew it would be the win of the d pawn, but which order of moves? And after several of the moves, Black has several alternatives.
Intuitively I felt that 1 Nd5! had to be the move, but I couldn't make it work, all the exchanges were too much for me. But I looked at the normal alternatives, and dafter ones like 1 Bh6? and 1 Re7?, to no avail, so looked again at 1 Nd5! and eventually saw the path. 1…Nd5 2 Nc6! bc[] 3 Be7! Ne7[] 4 Qd8 exchanging the defender of the Ne7, which is now a LPDO, so 4….Rd8[] 5 Re7 and White is a healthy pawn up.
In the end position, Black can't play 5…Rd2 due to 6 Re8+ Kh7[] 7 Bc6 Rb8[] 8 Be4+ g6[] (8…f5 9 Bf5+ and the Bf5 is pinned to the LPDO Rb8) 9 b3 and White is two pawns up, 1-0.
Earlier, if after 1 Nd5 Black plays 1…hg then 2 Nc6 and 3 Ne7+ wins. And 1…Nd4 2 Ne7+ also nets the pawn.
Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.
Black to play and mate White.
Popov v Riumin, Moscow 1925
Solution
Because this is a puzzle from a book, you 'know' the answer has to be 1…Rf3! 2 Bf3 Qf3+! 3 Kf3 (3 Kf1 is just a grovel). All you need to do is then work out 'what next'. In a game, of course, you don't know that the combination is winning, or even that it is there: it has to be looked for and calculated.
Fortunately it is not too hard.
3…Nd4++ 4 Kg4[] Bc8+ 5 Kh4[] Nf3 mate is a forced line.
Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.
Black to play and mate White.
Unknown v Stoner, Sad 1924
Solution
A pretty variation of a standard theme of back rank mating (or back file mating). Black has to open the h file and does so forcibly by 1….Rh2+! 2 Bh2 Ng3+!!
3 Bg3[] Qh8+ 4 Bh2 Qh2+! 5 Kh2[] Rh8+
and after 6 Qh5 Rh5 mate.
A nice exercise.
Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.
White to play and mate Black.
Alekhine v Supiko, 1924
Solution
A pattern I had seen before: here, the fact that the rook had already been lifted to c3 is key. 1 Qg6! and if 1…fg 2 Ng6+! hg[] 3 Rh3+ and mates next move.
Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.
White to play and win
Alekhine v Kussman, simul New York 1924
Solution
The first move, and Black's best reply are obvious. 1 Qb5+! Nd7
It is then not a hard task to see that there is no forced mate, but after 2 Rfe1 White's advantage is overwhelming, and White needn't calculate further. Black has a few replies. If say 2…Be7 then 3 Ned6+ and if 3…Kf8 then 4 Re7 1-0. Or if say 2…Bb4 then 3 Nf6++ and 4 Nd7+ 1-0
A break for a day. A few weeks ago, whilst on holiday in Turkey, I posted this position on my Instgram, Facebook and Twitter (@allanbeard) feeds.
From Kas, Turkey
Below, I show the position in more convenient format.
Black to play and mate in 2
NN v Kokshal, Prague 1928 (source a 14/5/2003 article by Mark Dvortesky on Chesscafe.com)
I would have posted the position sooner, except that I typically do my daily posts a week or two in advance, and to then insert a new posting is time consuming (a new daily posting: perhaps I should have just posted it same day).
The solution is pretty: 1…Rd4+! and after either 2 Kd4 Qc4 is a smothered mate, or 2 Qd4, 2…Qf5 is a different smothered mate.
The initial position is also instructive. It is part of a series of positions Dvortesky gives on a theme of 'double pin' or he says 'Maltese cross'.
Black to play and win
1…Qd2+! 2 Kf3[] Rd3+ 3 Re3 (3 Kg4 Qf2 4 Qe5 Rg3+! 5 Qg3[] Qf5 mate) 3…Qe1!! The Maltese Cross.
4 Qe5 Qf1+ 5 Ke4 (5 Kg4 Re3 6 Qe3 Qf5 mate) reaches the initial diagram position.
If instead 4 g4 then there is another Maltese Cross: 4…Qf1+ 5 Kg3 Qe2!!
(5..Rd2 wins more prosaically). If (after 5…Qe2) 6 Kf4 then 6….Qf2+ 0-1.
Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.
White to play and mate Black
Reti v Bogoljubov, New York 1924
Solution
A position I knew, from my chess education. 1 Bf7+ Kh8[] 2 Be8! 1-0.
Yesterday, I posted this problem, from Dragoslav Andrić's book Matni Udar, the puzzle book that I am presently working through.
White to play and mate Black
Hartlaub v Walle, Bremen 1923
I gave the solution, as in the book, 1 Re7 Qe7 2 Rf6 gf 3 Nf5 Qe4 4 Qg5+!! 1-0. The book also gives the alternative line 3…Qe6 4 Qf4 Kh8 5 Qh6 1-0).
Alas, something is wrong. Stockfish, the iPad app I use for posting the diagrams, immediately flashed up 1 Nf5! with a +5 assessment; giving only a +2 assessment to 1 Re7, and swinging to a -4 assessment after 2 Rf6?.
Once I saw the assessment, I looked to understand the position after 3…Qe6. It immediately became clear that 4…Rd8! gives Black's king sufficient luft: there is no mate or N fork after 4 Qg4+ Kf8 5 Qg7+ Ke8[].
Instead, better, after 1 Re7 Qe7 is 2 Bf6! gf[] 3 Nf5 so that after 3…Qe4 or 3…Qe6 White plays 4 Qh6 and mates unless Black plays 4…Qf5 5 Rf5, after which White has an easy win in the endgame.
But best of all, simply play 1 Nf5 and after say 1…Nc6 (to defend the Be7 and develop) 2 Qg5 is overwhelming. Black loses a piece after 2…g6 (or, in fact, it is mate in 6, per my engine: 3 Nh6+ Kg7[] 4 Re7! etc).
So the problem isn't cooked, but the solution was, but the spoiler was well hidden.
allanbeardsworth 