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Chess Problem #808

 
 


Posted by Christopher    United States   on 03/31/2012 at 12:15 PM   
 
  1. Not sure if an attraction already exists, but White’s Knight seems a bit exposed. Let it remain so.

    1. Qh5, ...  This puts Black into a bind. If his pawn takes Knight, then Queen will take Rook, and a merry chase will ensue, in which Black’s pieces get picked off one by one. If he doesn’t do Pawn takes Knight, instead does something tiny like Pa6, then White will play Qxf7+ and start another killing spree in Black’s backfield. Or White will play Nxf7 to attract the Rook, forcing it to move (probably to h7 or g8) which in turn allows the Knight to go Nxh6+ and another ensuing rampage. Personally I wonder if White would be better off playing Bxh6 instead of Nxh6+, since that adds even more pressure against Black and White’s 3 pieces cover each other fairly well without exposing the Queen, but let’s play it the other way just for fun:

    1. Qh5, Pa6
    2. Nxf7, Rf8 ( Black loses a pawn )
    3. Nxh8+, Rf7 ( Black loses a pawn )
    4. Qxf7+, Kd8 ( Black loses a pawn )
    5. Qf8+, Be8
    6. Qf6+, Kc8
    7. Qxe6+, Kd8 ( Black loses a pawn )
    8. Qxd5+, Bd7 ( Black loses a pawn )
    9. Nxf5, ...  ( Black loses a pawn )

    A merry chase indeed, and Black is getting picked clean. Totally Pawned!

    At this point all White really needs to do is sit back and cover his own pawns as they advance up the right side of the board for eventual promotion. He has 5 in play, all he needs is 1 to get to row 8.

    Posted by Drew458    United States   03/31/2012  at  12:24 PM  

  2. Oops, typo. Move 3 is
    3. Nxh6+, Rf7 ( Black loses a pawn )

    Posted by Drew458    United States   03/31/2012  at  12:27 PM  

  3. There is actually attraction here, Drew.

    1. Nxf7

    Just a hint. Attraction? 1… Kxf7

    See if you can figure the follow-up.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   03/31/2012  at  03:15 PM  

  4. Did you see me staring at the position Chris?  1. Nxf7 was my move.  I was trying to figure out the best for black and I do not think taking back with the king is the one. 

    1. Nxf7 ... KxN
    2. Q-f6+ .. K-g8 or loose the h8 rook
    3. Q-g6+ .. K-f8
    4. Bxh6+ .. Rxh6
    5. QxR ...  and White has picked two pawns and traded Knight for Rook and wins easily.

    So better for Black is:
    1. Nxf7 ... R-h7
    2. Q-f6+ .. Nxh6 White now has two pawns and will win but it is harder.

    I have not looked at your move Drew but I will but my first impression is with Black I would reply to 1. Qh5 with d7-c8 to give the black king a place to run.

    The Polgar book is very good.  It has thousands of mates in two and three, I have solved only a hundred or so. Many are surprisingly hard. Too much else to do.  They would work well here.

    Posted by Wes    United States   03/31/2012  at  04:10 PM  

  5. Now I get to edit my second line in the better for black section It should read:

    1. Nxf7 ... R-h7
    2. Nxh6 ..  White now has two pawns and will win but it is harder.

    Posted by Wes    United States   03/31/2012  at  04:14 PM  

  6. Not sure what the ‘best’ is after 1. Nxf7. Looks to me like White just snapped off a Pawn. But the book does give

    1… Kxf7.
    2. Qf6+ Kg8.

    Now, after that, find the White’s best move. And no, it isn’t 3. Qg6+. White needs to bring some more heavy pieces into play.

    Sorry Wes. Though I daresay your way would win. It would take longer and I don’t know how much time either side had left on the clock. Time’s important. I can’t count the number of times I’ve won/lost games on time. I remember a fairly recent tournament game that I won on time despite being down material. But I had 15 minutes left to his 30 seconds. He couldn’t force the win before his clock fell. I kept offering a draw after every move, he declined. Score another win for me!

    Posted by Christopher    United States   03/31/2012  at  05:24 PM  

  7. Since nobody has a clock running on this, and none of the solutions gives a fast win, it’s hard to say whether one approach is better than the others, if they all pretty much get to the same spot after a couple turns. I got there 1 or 2 moves slower, but didn’t lose my Knight.

    Posted by Drew458    United States   03/31/2012  at  07:13 PM  

  8. Well, I haven’t given the solution yet. I’ll grant we aren’t talking mate in two or three moves. But let’s just say that so far nobody’s got the right solution.

    As for you Drew, you should go to USChess.org and buy yourself at least a decent analysis set. If you don’t like that, let me know; I might know some places you can download free chess software for a Windows computer. I don’t usually pay much attention to them, but they do exist.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   03/31/2012  at  07:34 PM  

  9. I do have a good analysis program. Arena. It is free on the internet for windows computers.  I don’t use it until after I work out a problem myself and post a solution as will be evident when I post the line it recommends after 1. Nxf7 Kxf7 and 2. Qf6+ Kg8

    1. Nxf7 Kxf7
    2. Qf6+ Kg8 Here it announces Mate in 8.
    3. Ra3 Nxa3 This move as White I would never have made.
    4. Qg6+ Kf8 There are other variations but nothing better for Black.
    5. Bxa3+ Qc5
    6. dxc5 Rh7
    7. Qxh7 Re8
    8. c6+ Re7
    9. cxd7 d4
    10. d8=Q# Mate

    It also has a better line than my move if Black’s King does not take the Night on f7.
    1. Nxf7 Rh7 I called this one
    2. Nd6+ Nxd6 This move I would not have made.
    3. exd6 Qd8 The rest of this is complicated.
    4. Qh5+ Rf7
    5. Ra3 Qf6
    6. Bf4 Qg7
    7. Bxh6 Qh7 and so on, White is ahead but it will take more time and no mistakes.

    I have to say that If I can find a move good enough to capture enough material for a win I do not spend a lot of time looking for a better one.  I save my energy for the next game.

    Posted by Wes    United States   03/31/2012  at  09:42 PM  

  10. 3. Ra3 was correct.

    Did you find that? Or did your chess program find it?

    3.…Nxa3 didn’t happen in the book. I think Black played 3.…f4 to stop the threat of 4. Rg3+ with mate to follow. After all, 3…Nxa3 allows 4. Re3 with the same threat, plus the threat of taking the Knight on a3. And it still fails to White’s follow-up.

    I’ll post the book solution later today, and the next problem. I think I’ll stick with the ‘attraction’ section for a few more posts.

    Thinking of switching to Polgar’s book Wes. Combination Challenge is a paperback, and it is falling apart. Polgar’s book is a hardback, coffee-table type of book. It’ll take a lot more abuse. It’s also a bit simpler: instead of ‘themes’, Polgar does ‘mate in two’, ‘mate in three’, etc. But, you don’t get to learn the ‘themes’.

    What do you think, Wes? And since you said you have the book, no fair solving if I do switch.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   04/01/2012  at  12:14 PM  

  11. No, the program found the Ra3 move. In a game I never would have made it I would have just picked my pawns and won that way.  Here is the line with ...f4
    1. Nxf7 Kxf7
    2. Qf6+ Kg8
    3. Ra3 f4
    4. Bxf4 Nxa3
    5. Re3 Qc3
    6. Rxc3 Be8
    7. Rg3+ Bg6
    8. Rxg6+ Kh7
    9. Qf7# Mate

    Mate is one move quicker for white this way so 3. Ra3 Nxa3 delays the inevitable a little longer.  There are some other variations that mate in eight with best play but nothing better.  Best for White in the long run is not to play 1. Nxf7 Kxf7 but play
    1. Nxf7 Rh7 White wins but against best defense it takes a long time.

    The program I am using “Arena” will analyze every possible move in every possible line if given enough time.  You have your choice of chess engines, I am using Rykba --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rybka --- to go over these problems after I make my own attempt.

    Posted by Wes    United States   04/01/2012  at  03:40 PM  

  12. Rybka is a good choice. But since I use Macs I’d have to use some sort of Windows emulation software. Not too much of a problem, plenty of free ‘emulation’ programs exist, one of which I have, except I still need a copy of Windows. My friends who used to ‘lend’ me their copies, and passwords, are now either dead or otherwise unavailable. I’m not willing to shell out the money. And I don’t trust the ‘freeware’ versions I come across on usenet. Doubtless riddled with viruses and other malware.

    Exachess is my preferred Mac program. It comes with a decent program, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Something like Zzzzz. Weird name. It can kick my @ss. I have occasionally plugged HIARCS into Exachess, but again, I don’t have the funds to buy HIARCS. If you don’t pay for it, it’s only good for 15 days. And you can’t save any games. It took me years to cough up $95 for Exachess. Until then the ‘lite’ version limits you to one personal database of 250 games. All other databases, and there are lots on the web, are also limited to 250 games. Hated having to go through a database of several thousand games of my favorite openings and try to break them up into 250 game packets. I did wait until the exchange rate was favorable. The guy that wrote Exachess is Australian, so the exchange rate was important.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   04/01/2012  at  05:22 PM  

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