Today’s Chess Problem 9/9/11
on 09/09/2011 at 03:50 AM
Black d8 - d7
white g2 - g3
black f8 - d8
white takes pawn, d5 - c5
black takes knight, d7 - d6
trying to avoid a queen exchange, white takes rook, e5 - d6
black queen for the mate, e7 - e1
*** Even if the queen exchange takes place, it will leave black a rook in column D which is open along the whole board. Black rook to D1 for the mate.
Nice try Drew. But Black can be more forceful.
yes, but white can’t be expected to play foolishly.
shifting rook 2 to the left to cover a Q-Q threat doesn’t work because of the white knight. White could also move the white bishop up to block column D, and then cover with the rook.
making a pawn play, g6-g5, might work: if white takes that pawn, black queen takes white pawn at g5 for the mate. If white doesn’t take the pawn, black does instead, g5-f4, and then advance again next turn to f3. Move the queen up to g5 for the mate. But all this supposes white just letting it happen. Easy enough for white to go on a bender, moving her queen d5-b7 to threaten the black queen. Once the black queen retreats, it’s mayhem time in black’s backfield, with at least 1 more pawn, the bishop, and probably a rook falling prey, all while black tries for a way around the white knight. Hard to say what the result will be.
Stacking up black’s rooks in column D to hammer the column open by taking white’s knight, pawn, perhaps queen, and pawn again is very risky and almost suicidal. There is no guarantee that white will just sit there.
Going for the fast ‘n easy doesn’t work: black queen e7-h4 and then h4-e1 for the mate will not work because, duh, white moves pawn g2-g3 to cancel the queen, and then “completes the arrow” next turn by moving pawn b2-b3 to put pressure on black’s bishop. That leaves white’s backfield covered but very open, allowing her rook and bishop a lot of room to maneuver in subsequent moves. Sure, maybe black can slide the queen to the left, h4-g4, and then with luck g4-d1 for the mate, but there is too much that white can be doing with her queen and knight in the meantime to make it a guaranteed win.
Let’s see yours.
Full solution tomorrow.
But Drew, why not just take the knight? 1… Rxd6! Yes, that’s the first move of the solution. Remember, White’s back rank is weak. There are mate threats. White is lost unless Black plays wimpy moves.
First off, not being a chess junkie or even a fan, I don’t fully understand your move nomenclature. I think I see it, but it’s very shorthand.
Next, taking the knight does NOT force the white queen to go suicidal - black rook takes white knight (Rxd6!), white queen takes rook, black queen takes white queen(Qxd6), white pawn takes black queen (Pxd6! ?) and then black rook moves into position for an eventual mate (Rd8!). Instead, when black rook takes white knight, white queen could retreat from d5 to d3 and be covered by white’s bishop, or move to fd2 and be covered by the king, perhaps setting up a trap. If I was white I’d move Q to d3; if the queen was lost, I could get revenge with my bishop, which would open up the rook in the corner.
Defeat may be inevitable, but white can drag it out for a lot more than the 3 moves you show for black. I don’t think my way gives white any move options at all, other than doing something stupid. And somewhere in there white may have the chance to move up a pawn, b2-b3, collapsing black’s entire plan by taking out the bishop.
Again, it’s the mate threat. White cannot play pxd6 because Black plays Qe1+ with mate to follow. Ditto for Qxe7. As for the Queen going suicidal, well, if the Queen leaves the d-file, Black mates. Don’t forget the goal: the goal is mate.
Yes, White can drag it out, Qxd8, but White will be down a Queen. Trust me Drew, I’ll beat you if I’m up a Queen for a Rook. I’ve held a grandmaster to a draw. I wasn’t even up material. We were even.
I hope you learn the the chess nomenclature. It’s called algebraic. Not like what was called ‘descriptive’. In descriptive I’d play 1. P-K4. In algebraic, I play 1. e4. Same move.
Maybe I’ll teach something. Chess is a fun game. Hope you’ll become a chess fan. It’s fun! As I’ll show with the following posts.
Yes but Christopher .... if I don’t understand what e4 or Qxd8 are, because I’ve never seen it that way before, it’s like someone speaking a foreign language to me.
Let me put it this way.
It’s like telling a funny joke in a foreign language. How would anyone not familiar with that language find the laff?
Really quite simple peiper. The squares have one designation. Runs from a1 to h8. Note the coordinates on the side and bottom of the board. If I play e4 it’s a pawn move. If it’s any other piece I’ll say so: Q, R, K, N, B, etc. So if I play Qxd8 I’m showing that my Queen captures (that’s the ‘x’) on the square d8. Doesn’t matter what I’m capturing.
Christopher,
Last minute packing then get eBoarding pass and then pull the plug on this machine around noon my time.
So, I’m not even supposed to be here. Talk about slave to puter.
OK … Now that you’ve explained the nomenclature it’s clear. My wife once played some heavy hitters here (in her youth) and won. She’s good at this game. But she didn’t work out the system either. Till you said ‘x’ meant a capture, everything fell into place cos I’d already thought the other designations were as you say. But the x thru me off entirely.
You may have to explain things for ppl who haven’t your experience or read chess books. Lots of folks are just casual players with an interest in the game but not up on the newer trends. Now that I understand exactly what you were saying I will be able to follow better. But setting up a board to see it will help more then tryng to play off a screen. Might have to bring back a chess set. Have one stored somewhere, that my mom gave me on my 16th birthday. Good grief. And still have it somewhere in CA.I’m not certain as I wasn’t last year either, how often or easy it will be to get to a computer, but our time will be pretty much taken up with legal and medical stuff and nowhere near the time we had last year while home.
I used to enjoy the game, but got quite frustrated and temper,temper when I lost. Not angry at winner. At myself for being blind to what I only saw after losing.
I’m not sure ‘game’ really applies to Chess. It always seemed so much more then just, ‘a game.’ I don’t think I’m well suited to Chess tho, only because I’m so low on patience.
09/10/2011 at 12:12 PM
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