Monday, August 27, 2012

A Task from Nikos Pergialis

There are composers of chess problems in various countries of the world.
In some countries there is support from the state, there are schools with teachers and students, and they have production of nice compositions.
On the other hand, something odd has been observed in Greece : in various times there is lack of peace - comfort - good health - free time, and again some important composers appear.
An example was Demetrius Kapralos. In our era, an example is the last Rebetis (remember the rebetiko song!), the aged but productive Nikos Pergialis.

Below you see a direct two-mover of his, with white royal battery (the king is the front piece and when he moves, the rear piece delivers mate). For the royal battery, the maximum number of thematic variations in an orthodox two-mover is six. Nikos Pergialis achieves that, this is a Task, and he says

This Task, my urchin friends,
I bring to you with pride.
With only a dozen pieces
- I think it is first time!



8/8/4pp2/1BBk3s/3P4/2p2K1Q/2p5/3s4
(5+7) Meredith
Problem-610
Nikos Pergialis
original

#2

{Try 1.Qh1? e5!}
Key : 1.Qg2! [2.Ke2#/Kg4#]
1...Sf2 2.Kxf2#
1...f5 2.Ke2#
1...Se3 2.Kxe3#
1...Sg3 2.Kxg3#
1...c1=S 2.Kg4#
1...Sf4 2.Kxf4#
1...e5 2.Qg8# (non thematic variation)

Task with royal battery.

3 comments:

Stelling said...

If I'm not mistaken the WK battery composition with the smalest number of men is the following from J. F. Ling, The Problemist, 1953
8/3b4/1R5Q/k2KR3/r7/8/8/8
Cheers,
Roberto

Emmanuel Manolas said...

Geia sou Roberto!
Thanks for your comment.
There are similar tasks with 12, 11 or fewer pieces. You are right (and fast)!
Let us say that the song means "it is the first time I composed such a task", so that old-Nikos (born 1931) and we all are happy.
Best regards

Emmanuel Manolas said...

Dear Roberto Stelling, the author Nikos Pergialis said that the problem of J. F. Ling (WinChloe 118342) has two unprovided checks (Be6+, Rd4+), which make the problem unacceptable.
I think he is right.
Best regards