Long fairy helpmates 1

In this series of pages I'd like to turn attention of readers to relatively little exploited field of fairies. Without any doubts, the most popular genres for fairies are #2 and h#2. In both direct play and helpplay the increasing number of moves rapidly increases the danger of cooks. That's why there is relatively small portion of longer fairy helpmates among all published fairy problems. The development in orthodox helpmate moremovers has come very far in recent years, many records unbelievable, let's say, 10 years before, are reached. Without any doubts, it is thanks to available testing by computers. Could such an explosion uprise in fairies too? That's a question. Let's look to 'what has been done' during waiting 'what great will appear'.
Václav Kotesovec
3019 Phénix 69, Dec 1998

1.Kd5 Se6 2.Qd4 Sd8 3.Kc5 Ge4 4.Gd5 Sb7#

1.Qc2 Gf4 2.Kd5 Se6 3.Ge5 Kb5 4.Qe4 Sc7#

1.Ke5 Kb6 2.Qf4 Kc5 3.Gd5 Gg4 4.Gf5 Sd7#

Triple echo model mates.









h#4 (3+3)
1+1 grasshopper
3.1.1.1....
Göran Wicklund
9083 springaren 74 - Dec 1998

1.Sb3 d3 2.Sxd3(w) cxb3(b) 3.b2 Sc1 4.bxc1R(w) Rh1#

Interesting "fight" of both sides to give white material strong enough for mating.









h#4 (3+3)
Andernach chess
Miroslav Henrych
3018 Phénix 69, Dec 1998

1...MOd1 2.Kd5 e3 3.Re5 Kd2 4.Bf5 Ke2 5.Ke4 MOc3#

2 cyclic exchanges of places, white K-p-MO, black K-B-R.

+++ Composition In the Spotlight (CIS) No. 24 +++


Spotlight comment by Juraj Lörinc:

Fairy piece moa is a main reason of aiming the spotlight onto this problem. One of recent fairy tourneys have asked for h#2 with mates given by neutral pieces. (The link with the current problem will be clear in a minute, just be patient.) We had similarly oriented the 17th TT CCM in 2005 and generally speaking, I am quite interested in problems with neutral mates. The point is in the irreversibility of the mating move by neutral piece. It is possible to make this possible in many ways: promotion, capture on the pin line, battery opening by grasshopper jumping far enough - or one-way move by mao/moa with the return move blocked. (And here we are!)

So I was just looking at problems with mao and moa, not to compose something similar, just because of pure curiosity. The present problem stood out not because of very specific use of moa properties, rather because of the relative simplicity of showing visually attractive theme: two simultaneous cyclic exchanges of places of three pieces. Yet, there are also quite a few orthodox versions of the present task existing (e.g. h#5 by Torsten Linß and Rolf Wiehagen that entered also Album FIDE).

So there is a question: has such fairy composition the right to existence? Yes - this is my answer. Yours can be different.









h#4,5 (3+5)
1+0 moa
Václav Kotesovec
1st HM Martin - Zilina 1996/97

1.Gd4+ Kf1 2.Gbg1 Kg2 3.Ge3 Kh3 4.Ke4 Kg4 5.Qd5 f3#

1.Ge4 Kh2 2.Rd4 Kh3 3.Re6 Kh4 4.Ke5 Kg5 5.Gd5 f4#

(0,1)-echo model mates.









h#5 (2+6)
0+2 grasshopper
2.1.1.1....
Václav Kotesovec
Special Prize for miniature Martin - Zilina 1996/97

1.Gc5 Gc6 2.Kd4 Ge6 3.Gd5 Fg5 4.Ge5 Ff4 5.Fc5 Fe3#

1.Kd5 Fg5 2.Gf6 Ke3 3.Gc4 Gf4 4.Ge6 Gf7 5.Ke5 Ff4#

(1,1)-echo model mates.









h#5 (3+4)
1+2 grasshopper, 1+1 fers
2.1.1.1....
Václav Kotesovec
470 harmonie 56, Dec 1998

1.Ka5 Kb3 2.Ka6 Kc4 3.Gc5 Kd5 4.Ga7 Kc6 5.Ga5 Zd8#

1.Ga1 Kb1 2.Ka3 Kc2 3.Ka2 Ze3 4.Ga3 Zb1 5.Ga1 Zd4#

Far (0,4)-echo mates - but not models!









h#5 (2+3)
0+2 grasshopper, 1+0 zebra
2.1.1.1....

Comments to Juraj Lörinc.
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