Sunday, March 28, 2010

Solving contest ESSNA No.7 2010

The contest was organized by ESSNA (Union of Chess Clubs in Attica, Greece) and was hosted in Chess Club Ampelokipi.

Mr Ioannis Garoufalidis was the Judge of the contest, who said that he selected easier problems than the previous contest. That was almost true. (Cursed self-mate!).

The given time limit was 2 hours and 15 minutes for 6 problems (1 two-mover, 1 three-mover, 1 multimover (six-mover), 1 study for win, 1 helmate in three with two solutions and 1 και 1 self-mate (multimover in 4 moves)).

There were 17 contestants-solvers.
The first three were awarded with commemorative cups.
The first six were awarded with chess books and magazines.
Here are the names, times and grades of the first twelve solvers.

posSurname Nametimetotal
1Mendrinos Nikos2.0825
2Papastavropoulos Andreas2.1525
3Konidaris Panagiotis2.1520
4Skyrianoglou Dimitris2.1117,5
5Fougiaxis Harry2.1115
6Manolas Emmanuel2.1215
7Vlahos Elissaios2.1514,5
8Papachristoudis Anastasios2.1513,5
9Anastasiou Marios2.1012,5
10-11Anemodouras Leokratis2.1512,5
10-11Sklavounos Panagis2.1512,5
12Mitsakis Konstantinos2.1010

There was also a young contestant Panagiotis Koutoukidis and he was awarded with the prize 'Young Champion of Attica in Solving Chess Problems 2010'. The young Koutoukidis, student of second grade in 5th Gymnasium of Ilioupolis, has finished recently at first place of the School Chess Games in Attica, in his grade.

You may see the winners in the very informative chess blog (in Greek) of Schroedinger's Cat : here.


Here follow the problems of the contest. (In parantheses there are the grades of each move).

(Problem 441)
D T Brock,
2nd Prize, Literaly Digest, 1903
Mate in 2 moves.
#2 (10 + 8)
[2S5/4p1B1/4P1s1/1p1k3K/2R1Rp2/b2S1p2/3p1P2/3Q1B2]

Tries : [1.Sb6+? Kd6!], [1.Re3? fxe3!], [1.Rd4+? Kxe6!], [1.Re5+? Kxc4!], [1.Rd4+? Kc6!], [1.Sxf4+? Sxf4+!], [1.Sb4+? Bxb4!], [1.Qa4? bxa4!], [1.Qc2? Bc5!], [1.Qa1? / Qxd2? bxc4!].

Key : 1.Re1! zugzwang (5)
1...Bc5/Bb4/Bd6 2.Rxc5#/Sxb4#/Sb6#
1...dxe1=Q/S/R/B 2.Sxf4#
1...b4 2.Rc5#
1...bxc4 2.Qxf3#
1...Kxc4 2.Sb6#
1...Sg6~ 2.Sxf4#


(Problem 442)
Otto Wurzburg,
American Chess Bulletin, 1945
Mate in 3 moves.
#3 (4 + 4)
[3K3Q/8/8/8/8/8/5prB/5Bbk]

Tries : [1.Qg7? Rxg7!], [1.Qh3?/Qg8? R(x)g8+!], [1.Qh7?/Ke7? Bxh2!], [1.Qg8? Rxg8+!], [1.Bxg1+? Kxg1!], [1...Bh2~+ Bh2!], [1.Bxg2+? Kxg2!]

Key : 1.Kd7! (1) threat 2.Qa8 and 3.Qxg2# (1)
1...Rg8 2.Qxg8 (0.5) 3.Qg2#
1...Rg7+ 2.Qxg7 (0.5) 3.Qg2#
1...Rg6 2.Bd6+ (0.5) Rh6/Bh2 3.Qa8/Qxa2#
1...Rg5 2.Be5+ (0.5) Rh5/Bh2 3.Qa8/Qxa2#
1...Rg4 2.Bf4+ (0.5) Rh4/Bh2 3.Qa8/Qxa2#
1...Rg3 2.Bxg3+ (0.5) Bh2 3.Qxh2#


(Problem 443)
A Johandl,
2nd Honourable Mention, Kompositionturnier der Welt, 1998
Mate in 6 moves.
#6 (8 + 8)
[s2SK2B/2p5/2PP2Rp/1p1k4/1P6/3P4/b6p/3s4]

Tries : [1.Rg5+? hxg5!], [1.Rf6? Se3!], [1.dxc7? Sb6!]

Key : 1.Rg4! (1) threat 2.Rd4#
1...Kxd6 2.Rg6+ Kd5 (note 1) 3.Se6 ( > 4.Sf4#) Kxc6 (note 2) 4.Sd8+ Kd5 5.Sc6 (4) ~ 6.Se7#
Theme : Switchback of White Rook And White Knight
note 1 : 2...Be6 3.Rxe6+ Kd5 4.Re4 ~ 5.Rd4#
note 2 : 3...Kd6 4.Sf4+ Be6 5.Rxe6#


(Problem 444)
V Platov & M Platov,
Deutsche Schachzeitung, 1908
White plays and wins.
+ (4 + 2)
[8/8/8/2P4P/8/2K5/7B/k4r2]

Key : 1.Kb4! (1) Rf5! (note 1) 2.c6 Rxh5 3.c7 Rh4+ 4.Kb5 Rh5+ 5.Kb6 Rh6+
6.Bd6! (2) Rxd6+ 7.Kb5 Rd5+ 8.Kb4 Rd4+ 9.Kb3 Rd3+ 10.Kc2 Rd4 11.c8=R! (1) (note 2) Ra4 12.Kb3 (1) +-

note 1 : 1...Tb1+ 2.Kc4! (2.Ka5? Th1) 2...Tc1+ 3.Kd5 Td1+ 4.Ke6
note 2 : 11.c8=Q? Rc4+ 12.Qxc4 = (Remember the study by Saavedra, Problem 81)


(Problem 445)
A Vilkauskas,
Sachmatija, 2009
Helpmate in 3 moves. Two solutions.
h#3 2.1.1.1.1.1 (3 + 7)
[2K5/8/2p2p2/5p2/2qk1s2/3bR3/3P4/8]

1.Be4 Rd3+ 2.Ke5 Rd7 3.Qe6 d4# (2.5)

1.Kd5 Re7 2.Be4 d4 3.Se6 Rd7# (2.5)


(Problem 446)
L Makaronec & V Surkov,
Sachmatija, 2009
Self-mate in 4 moves.
s#4 (9 + 10)
[1bSSsB2/p7/p7/3kp3/2p1p1R1/2p1K3/2Q1PP2/1R5b]

Tries : [1.Sb6+? axb6!], [1.Qxe4+? Bxe4!], [1.Qd3+? cxd3!], [1.Qd2+? cxd2!], [1.Rb5+? axb5!]

Key : 1.Sd6! (1) threat 2.Qd1+ Kc5 3.Sxe8+ Ld6 4.Qd4+ exd4# (1)
1...Kc5 2.Sxe4+ Kd5 3.Sf6+ Sxf6 4.Rd4+ (1.5) exd4#
1...Sc7 2.Rd1+ Kc5 3.Sc8+ Kb5 4.Rd5+ (1.5) Sxd5#

No comments: