Fairy condition "BackHome"

The BackHome fairy condition is invented by Nicolas Dupont.

Definition : "If a piece can move to the square it occupied in the diagram position, it must move to this back-home square. BackHome moves have priority over the virtual capture of the opponent king by any piece, i.e. checks are fairy. If more BackHome moves are possible, the side-on-move chooses which move to play. The BackHome square of a pawn which is promoted during the solution is the-initial-diagram-square of this pawn."

The fifth thematic tourney (TT5) of ChessProblems.ca, ending 31-XII-2013, required original chess compositions employing the BackHome fairy condition. For the Announcement and the Award please visit this link. You will find excellent material if you follow the link to the bulletin.

The condition is included in programs WinChloe 3.24 and Popeye 4.65 .

I will present here two helpmate problems of mine, one with normal pieces and one using a Grasshopper, where the BackHome condition is applied.

Problem_761 Emmanuel Manolas original

3r4/8/2r5/b3S3/3k1K2/7b/5P2/8, (3 + 5) h#7, BackHome

1.Rc3 Sc4 (the wS blocks the return path for the bRc3) 2.Re3 Se5 (the wS returns BackHome) 3.Rd5 Sd7 (the wS blocks the return path for the bRd5) 4.Rc5 Se5 (the wS returns BackHome) 5.Be6 Sg4 (the wS blocks the return path for the bBe6) 6.Bd5 Se5 (the wS returns BackHome) 7.Bc3 fxe3# The wS, visiting 3 different squares and then returning BackHome, blocks the BackHome path of three black units which block their King. The four black pieces go to their destinations one after another in strict order.

Problem_762 Emmanuel Manolas original

8/8/7k/8/g6p/2p4P/2K4R/7R, (4 + 4) (Grasshopper 0 + a4) h#6, BackHome a) diagram, b) bGa4 to h8

a) diagram 1.Gd1 (the wG cannot return to a4) Rf1 2.Gg1 (blocks the return path of bRf1) Rf4 3.Kg5 Rxh4 (inhibits the BackHome move of the bK) 4.Gg6 Rh8 5.Gg4 Rg8+ 6.Kh6 (the bK makes a switchback BackHome) hxg4# (the wRh1 is in BackHome position, the check is valid, it is mate). b) bGa4 to h8 1.Gh5 (the wG cannot return to h8) Rd2 2.cxd2 Kd3 3.d1=B (inhibits the BackHome move of the bK to c2) Ke4 4.Gxh3 Kf5 5.Ge6 Rxh4 (this is not a check) 6.Kh5 (the bK is not in threat) Rh1# (wR moves away from bK and makes a switchback to BackHome position to give check. Three pieces are cleared from the h-file to make this mate possible, and the promoted bBd1 is unable to interfere). There are sacrifices, of bGg4 in (a), of wRd2 in (b). There are reciprocal captures, wPxbG in (a), bGxwP in (b).

MT Zabunov-85, Award

22.03.2014 Award :
http://kobulchess.com/en/tournaments/awards/515-vladimir-zabunov-award.html

Mr Kostas Prentos (GRE) has been awarded with a third Honorary Mention.

The Bulgarian composer FM Vladimir Zabunov (1928-1997), had a theme about batteries bearing his name:

Zabunov theme - the front piece from one battery makes an ambush move and becomes the rear piece of a newly created battery.

10th European Chess Solving Contest, ECSC

The announcement is on the site of  the World Federation for Chess Compositions, WFCC and the 10th European Chess Solving Contest, ECSC will be held in Igalo, Montenegro, May 16-18 2014.

See here : http://www.wfcc.ch/competitions/solving/ecsc2014/

World Congress of Chess Composition, Bern 2014

The 57th World Congress of Chess Composition, (WCCC), will be held in Bern, Switzerland, in the week August 23 -30, 2014.
During the Congress, the 38th World Chess Solving Championship, (WCSC), and many Composing Contests will be held also.

For details, you may visit the official site
http://www.kunstschach.ch/wccc2014/home.html

You can make a reservation until 30-VI-2014.

Supplementary results of WCCT-9, 2012-2013

The ninth World Tourney of Chess Compositions, WTCC-9, had awards which we have already published, but there were also many problems with rank outside the first 1-20 in each category.

These problems are published in a special supplementary document, which you can see here.

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The only Greek composition was the following. It was marked with 1,5 grades from the judges and it was surely less in value compared to the awarded compositions. But let us see it, if only to understand how difficult is the competition at the world level.

What the composition tourney demanded from the problem was "to have tries with threats A and B and these moves should appear in variations after the key which should have another threat C".

Problem_751 Emmanuel Manolas WCCT-9 2012-2013

8/1P2Rp1b/r1RP1k1K/1PB2Ppp/S3p1r1/4SP2/1b6/8 (11+9) #2

Tries : {1.Bd4+? Bxd4!}, {1.Re6+? fxe6!}, {1.b8=Q? [2.Qh8#] Bg8!}, {1.Sxb2? [2.Bd4#] exf3!}, {1.Sc3? [2.Scd5#][2.Bd4#] Bxc3!}, {1.Sb6? [2.Sbd5#][2.Sd7#][2.d7#] Rxb6!}. Thematic tries : {1.d7+? A Rxc6!}, {1.Rxa6? [2.d7# A ] Be5!}, {1.bxa6? [2.d7# A ] Be5!}, {1.Sd5+? B Kxf5!}, {1.fxe4? [2.Sd5# B ] Rxe4!}, {1.fxg4? [2.Sd5# B ] hxg4!}. Key : 1.b8=S! [2.Sd7# C ] 1...Ra7 2.d7# A 1...Bxf5 2.Sd5# B

Here we see two tries with threat A and two tries with threat B, the moves A and B are also tries and they are appearing in variations after the key. Thus there is Theme Urania (One try-move, appears also as threat, appears also in a post-key variation), twice (one for move A and one for move B). There is a total of 12 tries, some with multiple threats, so this will not be an easy problem to solve.