Christmas Chess Contest 2006

[akots]

While it is still up, I should post this. Already posted at CFC and three other sites.

Since the first Christmas Contest (http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3310) was a success, I decided to launch the second one and hopefully not the last. Here are six problems all taken from actual games. Don't give up, it is not that difficult! Everyone is welcome to participate and certainly can solve at least a few!

Deadline for submission is January 10th midnight GMT. Take your time with these problems!

Please pm the answer to me no later than the deadline. Please do not use any chess programs to help you find the solutions. This cannot be checked and is a matter of honesty of the participants. Also, if you know the solution and have previously encountered the position please indicate so during submission. While submitting please provide for additional variations, and as many of them as possible because even if you don’t find the solution, you still might get a correct part of it and this would give you points!

Now to the spot. The same problems will be posted at few other sites. Whichever site has more submissions with more points, wins the competition! Of course, there will be individual awards as well! We’ll specifically ask Mistfit to cast a Golden Cup for the winner!

Position number 1

Black to start and give mate to the white king in 3 moves. Solution brings 1 point. This one should be easy to solve.


http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/200612295471_ccc07-1.JPG
28.32KB

Position number 2

Black to start and to win rapidly and deadly. Solution brings 2 points.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954710_ccc07-2.JPG
28.41KB


Position number 3

White to start and attack swiftly to give mate or gain decisive advantage. Solution brings 4 points.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954720_ccc07-3.JPG
28.62KB


Position number 4

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954730_ccc07-4.JPG
28.33KB


Black to start and give mate or gain a decisive advantage (mate is more likely). Solution brings 5 points.

Position number 5

White to start and to win. A rather complex combination should give decisive advantage to the white. Those who succeed will receive 6 points.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954740_ccc07-5.JPG
30.22KB

Position number 6

White to start and to win, no questions asked. Those who succeed will receive 9 points.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954750_ccc07-6.JPG
28.59KB

Good luck and don't forget about the deadline!

[Rik Meleet]

Nice :)
Can you recommend chess-board editor software ??
I solve chess problems visually.

[akots]

Cannot really recommend anything because nowdays they all have some engine underneath them and are seldom a freeware.

[Socrates]

Too much work to do, plus I'm leaving this afternoon, so too bad, don't count on me for this contest. [blush2] I hope CDZ will win though. [goodjob]

[barbu1977]

Answered 1 and 2. Will try the rest later, but in the past chess contest, I rarely got over the 2 points questions

[Banzai]

I've already submitted sollutions for puzzle 1, 2, 3 and 4...
I have ideas for puzzles 5 and 6, so you never know... :)

[akots]

Just a reminder about deadline which is tomorrow.

[akots]

Now, first, the solutions and then in a couple of days, final standings of participants and famous Misfit's Cup for the winner will follow shortly.

Position number 1

Black to start and give mate to the white king in 3 moves. Solution brings 1 point.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/200612295471_ccc07-1.JPG
28.32 KB

Not so complicated.
1. ... Qd6-d1+!
2. Kc1xd1 Bd7-g4++
and the mate with Rd1.


Position number 2

Black to start and to win rapidly and deadly. Solution brings 2 points.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954710_ccc07-2.JPG
28.41 KB

That is an easy one.
1. ... Qf3!


Position number 3

White to start and attack swiftly to give mate or gain decisive advantage. Solution brings 4 points.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954720_ccc07-3.JPG
28.62 KB

From the game played in 1946 by Bronshtein against Kottnauer.

1. Nd6-e8!
Now black face two main variations:
A)
1. ... Qc7xe5+
2. Qe4xe5 Rd5xe5
3. Nh4-g6+ and Ng6xe5 with two extra pieces

B)
1. ... Qc7-b6 (threatening Qb6-g1+)
2. Qe4-h7+! Kh8xh7
3. Rg4xg7+ Kh7-h8
4. Nh4-g6 mate.



Position number 4

Black to start and give mate or gain a decisive advantage (mate is more likely). Solution brings 5 points.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954730_ccc07-4.JPG
28.33 KB

The position is taken from Bagirov-Gufel’d, 1973.

First moves are rather forced and evident.

1. ... Qd8-b8+
2. Be6-b3 Ra3xb3
3. Kb1-c2 Nd3-b4+ (this is unexpected twist with a deadly force)
4. Kc2xb3 Nb4-d5+
5. Kb3-c2 Qb8-b2+ (getting there through the back door)
6. Kc2-d3 Qb2-b5+! With mate in 3:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/200711233626_ccc07-4a.JPG
27.24 KB

7. Kd3-c2 Qb5-e2+
8. Kc2-b3 Qe2-b2+
9. Kb3-c4 Qb2-b5 mate


Position number 5

White to start and to win. A rather complex combination should give decisive advantage to the white. Those who succeed will receive 6 points.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954740_ccc07-5.JPG
30.22 KB

The position is taken from the analysis of the famous Geller-Karpov game played in 44th USSR Championship in 1976 (round 3).

1. Nf4-g6+!! Rh6xg6
2. Ng5-h7+ Kf8-e7
3. Rf1-b1! Ra8-a7
4. Qc6-d6+!! Qd8xd6
5. e5xd6+ Ke7-d7
6. Rb1-b8 Kd7-c6
7. Nh7-f8 Ra7-b7
8. Rb8-c8+ Kc6-b5
9. c5-c6 and white wins.

Position number 6

White to start and to win, no questions asked. Those who succeed will receive 9 points.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2006122954750_ccc07-6.JPG
28.59 KB

Karpov-Miles, London, 1982
Obviously, the position in complex. It might be that black can successfully defend because of their powerful knight on d5 and possession of vertical c. However, white had sneaked their pawn to a6 and can try to advance it further to gain a decisive advantage. The position however enables forced win for the white by applying brutal slaughter approach. White start with eliminating the powerful knight and then claim vertical c for themselves. This results in variations when black cannot prevent the advance of the pawn.

1. Rd4xd5! Rc5xd5
2. Re3-c3! Rc8-d8 (2. ... Rc8xc3+ 3. Kb3xc3 Rd5-c5+ 4. Kc3-b4 Rc5-c7 is countered by 5. Bf1-g2! And white wins)
3. Rc3-c7! (Also wins 3. a6-a7 b5-b4. 4. a3xb4 Rd5-d1 5. Bf1-a6 Rd1-a1 6. b4-b5 Rd8-a8 7. Rc3-c7)
3. ... Rd5-d1 (3. ... Rd5-d4 leads to very similar variations)
4. Bf1xb5 e7-e5
5. a6-a7 e5xf4
6. Rc7-b7 Rd1-b1+
7. Kb3-a4 Rb1xb5
8. Rb7xb5 f4-f3
9. Rb5-b8 f3-f2
10. Rb8xd8+

[Banzai]

Thanks for the competition!
Do you have the list with the final standings?

[akots]

Sorry for the delay with the final results. I know who the winner is while for other places, it is harder to tell. I'm still trying to analyzed the 2. Bg2 move in position 6 to determine if it can win and thus it took quite some time. Unfrtunately, 2. Bg2 does not seem to win at all. [sad]

So, I will probably announce the results today later on or tomorrow.

[Rik Meleet]

Isn't Bg2 countered by Rxe5 and consequently piece-capture?

[akots]

No, what I mean that after the first move Rxd5 and then Rxd5 white can try Bg2. But it does not seem to be enough for winning. Black has a few god moves like 2. ... e6 (with a very hard to evaluate rook ending) or Rd1 with some strong counterplay on the king's side threatening to capture all white pawns there. Also possible 2 ... Rd4 with the idea of Ra4 later if white advance the pawn and there is not enough time for white to play Rc3. So, all in all it seems that Bg2 does not win decisively. Whereas 2. Rc3 instead wins very easily. I'm thinking that 2. Bg2 actually deserves no points at all even with the right first move 1. Rxd5!

[Rik Meleet]

sorry - wrong problem :)

[akots]

I still cannot decide about what to do with 2.Bg2. It can win eventually since the white still can keep the advantage in most of variations there but it would be a much harder win than simple Rc3. I'm not qualified enough to analyze it to the end and I had to resolve to use an advice of a more experienced and better player at playchess.com and I strongly suspect he just used Fritz for analysis and I had to verify all variations. So, eventually, IMHO, it cannot be qualified as a completely wrong solution. So, since I have to decide on something finally, it would be worth half the points. Well, Rc3 or even a7 does not need any Fritz to analyze and see that it wins but formally strictly speaking, 2.Bg2 is also apparently eventually a winning variation. There is still a big issue as to whether the advantage that white would have after 2.Bg2 is actually enough to win.

As I've said, main defence lines lie with
A)
2. ... e6 (which is not a good move at all, it loses rather rapidly in the rook ending actually)
B)
2. ... Rd4. 3. Bb7 Rd8. 4. Rd3! Rxf4. 5. Rd5 b4. 6. ab4 Rxg4. 7. Rb5 threatening with Bd5(Bg2) and Rb8. In this variation there is little room for Ra4 chance for the black since white are not in a hurry to move the a6 pawn.
C)
2. ... Rd1. 3. Bb7 Rb1+. 4. Ka2 Rc1! but in this variation white can probably win as well.

On the other hand, instead of 2. Bg2 or 2. Rc3 also wins simple 2. a7 which is substantially more deadly than the variations above.

All-in-all, it seems that variations arising from 2. Bg2 had to be analyzed in greater detail and this had not been provided unfortunately.

[akots]

There were total of 6 submissions. Not many, hopefully there will be more next year.

So, here are the final standings:

1. luceafarul - solved everything for whooping 27 points! This contenst it too easy for him. [sad] A shining new cup courtesy of Mistfit awaits the winner in the CFC thread. Please everyone join to congratulate him:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=198125

2. IL2T (CFR) - solved all the puzzles correctly eventually but not as excellent as the winner. He got 24 points and his second place is uncontested.

3. Banzai - did not solve puzzle number 5 correctly and had small difficulties with puzzles numbers 6 and 3 but still the result is very impressive with 14 points a clear thirs place.

4-5. Rik Meleet and barbu 1977 - got 3 points each.

6. BuDDaH (CFR) - 1 point.

Thanks everyone for participating! [goodjob]

[Socrates]

I'm currently playing luceafarul in the 2nd round of the CFC tourney. [cry] He's playing the French defense as Black. I will do my best.

[col]

Someone has to stop him!