Topic: Lets play a game of Chess - page 56. (Read 160701 times)

I would go here for Bf1.

I saw the puzzle before (a long time ago) with the colors reversed and also thought only checkmate in three was possible. I was wrong.

I vote Qg4 from the plan below. Black can stop it by moving his king but we are about to lose a pawn anyway. At least we will be threatening something for once!

Yes I am sure. It is hard to provide a clue without giving away the answer.

Are you sure that for this puzzle it's not mate in 3? I can encode a solution in binary if you so choose. Not seeing clearly a way for it to be mate in 2.

Your move bitcointalk. You have the white pieces

The current position is updated below:

25.Nc1    c4

This problem was not created by me and is fairly well known.

Black to move. Checkmate in 2



Give everyone some time to think about it. Once you find the answer you will know you are right.

25. Nc1

I enjoy in those chess problems...  Thanks

Doh! Sorry for being lazy I should've seen that    
I'm just curious, how would you assess the position that arise after Qxc6  bxc6 ( from the variation I suggested), I'm no longer very confident it's winning for white, white has given up 3 pieces for the queen and I'm wondering if I may be overestimating the usefulness of the passed pawn on the c file (after c7) and the knight on e7.  
I realize this is kind of off topic so it's totally fine if you would rather not get into it.

BTW ChessBTC is a great idea, you'll be able to reach a lot more people through Twitter  


EDIT -  Don't worry about the question above. When I first looked at the position after bxc6 I immediately concluded that white was winning without really exploring possible lines, based on the position alone it just felt like white should be winning. Then later when I looked at it again and saw that after c7 black could capture on d6 instead of moving the rook, I started second-guessing myself. I'd been working it out in my head up to that point but the position was just eating at me too much lol so I decided to switch on the engine. It turns out white indeed has a winning advantage 

I am very interested in playing chess.No one can not beat me in chess among my colleagues.Chess also actives the nerves of the brain.So it is the beneficial game for mind also.

Indeed?  Perhaps if you were to glance back over the last few pages of posts where we (well, you at least) are too afraid to move, lest we be taken, b3 is the lest likely to be taken.

Nc1 is a retreat move, not a defensive move which b3 is by pushing our opponent back slowly while keeping our established defense in place.

That was the previous move. The current move is move 25. I vote for Nc1. (b3 blunders away at least 2 pawns, by the way, which is why nobody's taking it seriously.)

b3 - 1 vote (Timelord2067)
Nc1 - 6 votes (XMRpromotions, jjacob, languagehasmeaning, boolberry, lottery248, Foxpup)

All good thanks for your reply. (I just realised last move was Qd1 wasn't it? (been a long game)...

It was sloppy not intentional. Not sure how I confused Nc1 with Qd1. They both end in 1 at least. Sorry Taras!  

Thanks for noticing my error Timelord2067!

I believe Taras' vote has been overlooked...

(ten messages back - this is message 616 that was message 606)


b3 - 1 vote (Timelord2067)

Qd1 - 1 vote Taras

Nc1 - 5 votes (XMRpromotions, jjacob, languagehasmeaning, boolberry, lottery248)

Not sure if that was accidental or not.


But it sure was sloppy...

I created the original problem first and only added the bishop on f4 to illustrate the point I was making in responding to ObscureBean. The idea was not difficult for me once I made the original problem. The bishop can prevent the kings escape as you discovered.

I like the first problem better because unlike many chess problems it makes you think about variations that are not forced. It also requires more accurate play because of the material imbalance. As I noted already move order had some importance even after the correct plan was identified.

The second problem is not ideal because the material situation allows white to win with imprecise play.  In the So vs Nakamura problem I chose among two positions in part for the same reason. In one position there were multiple winning moves including 29...Be3 (instead of 29...h3+) which was chosen. In the other position, precision starting with 31...Qxf2 was required to win. In that case I also presented the problem requiring more precision.

In creating a problem I start by imaging some pattern (Ne7 and checkmate on the h file in this case). Then I can add or subtract pieces to make things easier or more difficult. Some think it is fun to checkmate by moving the king which is why I added that possibility here.

b3 - 1 vote (Timelord2067)
Nc1 - 6 votes (XMRpromotions, jjacob, taras, languagehasmeaning, boolberry, lottery248)

Nc1

Updated voting

b3 - 1 vote (Timelord2067)
Nc1 - 5 votes (XMRpromotions, jjacob, taras, languagehasmeaning, boolberry)

I did not solve the last problem in time. Hopefully I get another chance soon:)

In the original problem we should play Bxc6 before Rxh7+ so that if black sacrifices his queen to stop mate we can keep our rook!

Ne7+  Kh8 Bxc6  and if black does not sacrifice his queen then we can play Rxh7+ (or Qxh7+) and transpose to the mating line given by obscurebean. If he does sacrifice his queen then our material advantage will be greater because we have not played Rxh7+ yet.

In the revised problem we can play 1.Ne7+  Kh8 2.Qxh7+ (our rook on h3 is actually a better attacker than our queen on b1 after our next move) Nxh7 3.Be4 and black never gets a chance to sacrifice his queen after f5 4.Rxh7+ and 5.Kg2#  after g6 then 4.Bxg6 fxg6 5.Be5+ Rf6 6.Bxf6#  or 4.Bxg6 Kg7 5.Bxe5+ f6(or Nf6) 6.Rh7#

The revised problem took me a long time to figure out. Is it a coincidence that adding a Bishop to the starting position changed the problem the way it did or did you think of it beforehand but decided the first problem was better for some reason? I don't think I would ever be able to solve this if you did not tell us it was a forced mate in 6. When you said that I decided that for the f4 bishop to matter the e5 to h8 diagonal would need to be opened. Since our king still needs to move in some lines to deliver mate, Be4 instead of Bxc6 made since once I realized it would force g6 and not allow the black queen to be sacrificed to stop mate.

I actually found many ways to win in the revised problem. The hardest part for me was finding why 2.Qxh7+ would lead to a faster win that 2.Rxh7+ (easy win but longer than 6 moves).