Solver's impressions - 2004 - 5

I wrote already in 2000 that moremover round is sometimes good for me, sometimes bad for me. It is still valid claim, but this time the round had special flavour and despite getting 8 points I have to declare it to be unsuccessful as the evening before I have seen 2 of 3 problems... would you believe it I didn't have to solve 2 problems? How is it possible?

Home, having solved 3 rounds I looked at the handouts given to us by judges, papers with solutions to rounds 1-3. I noticed that there were 2 problems from Chess Life 1987, #2 by Grigorij Markovskij, 2nd Prize Chess Life 1987 and #3 by Dan Meinking, 1st Prize Chess Life 1987. This coincidence striked me and I just thought - what if the person who selected the problems has chosen more problems from this magazine, especially moremovers or selfmates? If I knew these, it might save me some some time and even bring some points! So I quickly looked into the database and found a few moremovers and a few selfmates, not many, some of them interesting also for solving competitions... I browsed them within quarter of hour and forgot about them. Imagine how surprised I was when I discovered two of positions on sheet of paper for solving in this round, although they were in the mirrored versions...

Well, although I believed I was not cheating, I felt my action was somehow objectionable. I felt it already seeing the problems and I discussed the matter with a few fellow solvers - to my surprise no one expressed any disgust, objections or anger. Even more, one of them observed that he already thought about something similar before Polish solving championship as he noticed they always have some study by Lewandowski or Rusinek (? - not sure about a name of the author, perhaps it was someone else) on menu, so it should be enough to go through their works...

Nevertheless, I managed to lose 2 points on the first problem of two...
Milan Vukcevich
1st Prize Chess Life 1988

1.Sa2! th. 2.c4+ Rxc4 3.Sb4+ Rxb4 4.Qc6#
     2...Qxc4 3.Sc3+ Qxc3 4.Be4#
1...Rxc2 2.Bc4+ Rxc4 3.Sb4+ Rxb4 4.Qc6#
     2...Qxc4 3.Qc6+ Qxc6 4.Sb4#
1...Qa4 2.Qc4+ Rxc4 3.Be4+ Rxe4 4.Sc3#
     2...Qxc4 3.Sc3+ Qxc3 4.Be4#
1...Bxf5 2.Sc3+ Rxc3 3.Qxb7+ Ke6/Rc6 4.Qxf7/Qxc6#
1...e4 2.Sb4+ Ke5 3.Bg7+ Kxf5,f6 4.Qxf6#

It took me some time to recognize the position I've seen evening before as the diagram was mirrored, but having found this delightful fact, I quickly wrote the key, threat and two main variations. I've spent some time over the position to find some possible by-variations, however I failed to find any and after the round, consulting with others I just sadly sighed: "I knew there have to be some..."









#4 (11+12)
Robert Burger
Robin C.O. Matthews
2nd Prize Chess Life 1987

1.Kb2! (th. 2.Sc3+ Kf4 3.R3d4#, R5d4#) Rh5 2.Rxb3! (th. 3.Rd4+ exd4 4.Sxg3#) Bh4 3.Rdd3! (th. 4.Rxe3#) Qg5 4.Kc2!! zz Q~, Qf4! 5.Rxe3#, Sc3#
3...Bg5 4.Rd4+ exd4 5.Sxg3#

I had recognized this problem after looking at the beginning of the moremovers round not only thanks to the evening session with Chess Life problems from database - I knew it well before as I have spent a lot of time with Mostly Threemovers by R. C. O. Matthews and this problem, although not threemover, is there and is indeed a memorable one. Evening before I even hoped it will be selected for the competition - and it was, indeed! I had thought it was a difficult nut to crack, but e.g. Peter Gvozdják quite liked it and commented on this double Seeberger: "Very suitable for solving - logical, solvable and not too easy".









#5 (9+12)
Josef Halumbirek
2nd Prize Deutsche Schachzeitung 1941 (v)

1.Qb5! th. 2.c3+ Kxd3 3.Qb1#
1...Qb8 2.Rh5 (th. 3.Qc5#, Qxc4#) Bxh5 3.Sc6+ Sxc6 4.Sf5+ exf5 5.c3+ Kxd3 6.Qxf5#
1...c3 2.dxc3+ Kxc3 3.Se4+ Kxc2 4.Rh2+ Be2 5.Rxe2+ Kc1 6.Qb2#

No Chess Life = no points for me. I was solving it almost 1 hour and stil got nowhere... I believed it is bohemian, taking into account the nationality of the head judge (Pavel Kamenik), but I was wrong. I spent most of the time on possible keys 1.dxc4 and 1.Se4, hunting for model mate variations, it was completely false track. Michal Dragoun summarised the content - main variation shows 4-fold unguard of f5, mate from the best guarded square in the diagram can be found in the first variation.









#6 (8+10)

Comments to Juraj Lörinc.
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