Anton Preinfalk (1911-2011) Memorial Tourney C 19.12.2011 - announcement

Chess federation of Slovenia has announced a tourney in memory of their oldest composer who had recently passed away in his hundredth year. He was active as a composer until his very last days. He had published more than 200 problems of all genres; his first original had been published in twenties of the previous century! He had also entered the national team with endgames for the WCCT when he was over 90 years old. For the last twenty years he had tried to compose a correct 100$ helpmate.

Theme of the MT: Helpmate in 5 or more moves showing at least one white or black excelsior (in five or six moves) ended with S-promotion (not necessary in the last move of the solution). Promoted pieces are allowed, but not fairy pieces.

Closing date: 19th December 2011 (when Mr Preinfalk would have celebrated his 100th birthday).

Judge and the tourney director: Marko Klasinc, Nusdorferjeva 5, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, or marko@mar-vik.si or marko.klasinc@guest.arnes.si.


Krzysztof Drazkowski
Klaus Funk
4th Comm Thema Danicum 2001

a) 1.Ka7 c4 2.Ba6 c5 3.Ra8 c6 4.Bb8 c7 5.Sb7 c8S#

b) 1.Be6 c4 2.Ra8 c5 3.Ra7 c6+ 4.Ka8+ c7 5.Bf7 c8Q#

The first example has the easiest knight promotion phase: Black just arranges his pieces to allow mate by knight promotion. However the interesting things come just then - removal of one of blockers allows completely different mating net.









h#5 (2+5)
b) -bBe5
Arthur C. Reeves
3rd Prize diagrammes 1995

1.a5 b3 2.a4 bxc4 3.a3 cxd5 4.a2 dxe6 5.a1B exf7 6.Bg7 fxg8S#

1.c3 bxc3 2.d4 cxd4 3.e5 dxe5 4.Sf6 exf6 5.Qg7 fxg7 6.Sh8 gxh8Q#

Again the knight promotion phase is easy for black as it is just necessary to block g7. Black bishop promotion excelsior allows that. In the other solution Black has to work hard to allow White promotion on h8, every move provides the food for capturing pawn. The difference of wp routes is surely improvement compared to the previous problem.









h#6 (2+10)
2.1.1...
Julius Bebesi
3rd Prize TT Budapesti Testnevelesi es Sportbizotsag 1954

1...e4 2.a1S e5 3.Sb3 e6 4.Sd4 e7 5.Sf5 e8S 6.Sh4 Sxg7#

1.a1B e4 2.Bb2 e5 3.Ba3 e6 4.Bf8 e7 5.Kh4 exf8S 6.h5 Sxg6#

Set play form is usually more difficult to arrange than two solutions (and not speaking about twins). This helpmate works perfectly - in the set play the black knight promotion and the limited movement abilities of black king prevent loss of tempo in spite of the relative length. Thus bishop promotion follows with different knight promotion by white. Excellent!









h#6* (4+9)
Christer Jonsson
3rd Prize 174th TT Die Schwalbe 1987

1.f1B Kf8 2.Bc4 d3 3.a1Q dxc4 4.Qh1 c5 5.Qa8 c6 6.b1R c7 7.Rb7 c8S#

AUW is another possible theme to be shown in the tourney. The merit of this work lies especially in the first white move. Seemingly free wK must choose very carefully the arrival square (1...Kh8? ... 3.Qh1+!, 1...Kg7? ...7.Rb7! ??).









h#7 (2+8)
József Korponai
2nd HM Memorial Blathy
Magyar Sakkelet 1962

1.Se1 f3 2.S4d5 f4 3.Se3 f5 4.Se4 f6 5.Se5 f7 6.Kd4 f8S 7.Sd3 Se6#

Solo for knights! Well, almost... Nevertheless, this is at least funny, if not more. Black knights first have to allow white pawn pass, and then the mating net is finished in the spare time.









h#7 (2+8)
Reinhardt Fiebig
Rolf Wiehagen
2nd Prize StrateGems 2001

1.d5 Bb7 2.d4 Bc8 3.d3 Bg4 4.d2 Bxf3 5.d1S Kg3 6.Sc3 Kf4 7.Sb5 Ke5 8.Sa7 Kd6 9.Ka8 Kc7 10.Bb7 Bxb7#

Knight promotion is slightly more than a technical device in this fine problem. Surely, the emphasis is put on the mate given by wB with bK standing on bishop's initial square and on the wB roud trip. But the move order is softly determined, note especially 8.Sa7 allowing wK access to d6. Also try 2...Ba6? 3.d3! Be2??









h#10 (2+4)
Terho Marlo
2nd HM Summer Tourney Suomen Tehtäväniekat 2005-06

1.f5 Kg1 2.f4 Kh1 3.f3 Kg1 4.f2+ Kh1 5.f1S Kg1 6.Sg3 hxg3 7.Bb2 g4 8.Ba1 g5 9.Bb2 g6 10.Ba1 g7 11.Bb2 g8Q 12.Ba1 Qg3#

Unusual helpmate - with both sides making quite a few tempo moves. The trick is easy: time constraint. Black knight promotion excelsior makes White wait as long as possible (by wK moves). As soon as white pawn can move, he has to move and Black is left with single way of tempo oscillations.









h#13 (3+12)
Zdravko Maslar
Special Prize Schach-Echo 1975

1.d5 Kb7 2.d4 Kc6 3.d3 Kd5 4.d2 Ke4 5.d1S Kf3 6.Se3 Kf2 7.Kd2 Kxg1 8.Ke1 Kh2 9.Kf2 Kh3 10.Kg1 Kg3 11.Kh1 Bh3 12.Sf1 Kf2 13.Sh2 Bg2#

Perfectly constructed problem. It is obvious that bR cannot act as blocking piece in any corner mate by bishop, it is even impossible to construct mating picture on edge with it given the light-coloured promotion square of pawn. So what remains? Knight promotion and corner mate - with bK at h1.









h#13 (2+3)
Steven B. Dowd
Mirko Degenkolbe
2nd Prize Winter Tourney
Springaren 2005-06

1.Kf7 d4 2.Be1 d5 3.Bf2 d6 4.Bxg1 Kxg1 5.Ke8 Kh1 6.Kd8 Kg1 7.Kc8 Kh1 8.Kb7 Kg1 9.Kc6 Kh1 10.Kxd6 Kg1 11.Ke5 Kh1 12.d5 Kg1 13.d4 Kh1 14.d3 Kg1 15.dxc2 Kh1 16.c1S Sc2 17.Sxb3 Sxe3 18.Kd4 Sc2+ 19.Kc4 e4#

As improbable as it might seem, this problem also shows knight promotion excelsior. On top of that, it is finished by a battery mate!









h#19 (12+9)

Comments to Juraj Lörinc.
Back to main page of Chess Composition Microweb.