Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The twelve puzzles of Xmas


White to play and draw

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Kc2 a2 2. Kb2 Ka5 3. Ka1 Kxa4 4. c5 dxc5 5. Kxa2, perhaps?

Anonymous said...

Hard to believe this one has survived so long without a comment.

By the way, ejh, how do you manage to post the puzzles at *precisely* 8:00 AM each day?

Anyhow, I propose this: 1.Kc2 Ka5
(1...a2 2.Kb2 Ka5 3.c5; 1...Kc5 2.a5) 2.c5 dxc5 3.Kb3 a2 4.Kb2 Kb4 5.Ka1 c4 6.Kxa2.

Hope I didn't mess up.

Anonymous said...

Hello,
sorry about my comment being a bit off place here - but I wasn't sure where to ask

Is the chess club still meeting at the Streatham library on Wednesdays (as I read elsewhere)? If so, is it free to join? I live in the area and I'd be interested in popping in.

Thanks in advance and happy New Year everyone! / Konrad

Tom Chivers said...

It is Konrad, yes, and it indeed is free to join as well. Have fun!

Anonymous said...

The position WKa2; BKa4 Pc5 is the key position imho - mutual zugzwang. So White must play c5 & Kxa2 only when Black has played Kxa4. He should be able to arrange that.

ejh said...

By the way, ejh, how do you manage to post the puzzles at *precisely* 8:00 AM each day?

I have a perosnal régime not unlike that of Immanuel Kant.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year all.

ejh:
A regimen is one thing, but this is something else!

Anonymous @ 5:31 PM
Glad I didn't put any exclamation marks in my proposed solution, because your line is far simpler.

Anonymous @ 11:56 AM
Are you making a general comment? Or are you actually disagreeing with one of the lines given? I understand that in order to win K + P v K black needs to have the king in front of the pawn *and* the Opposition. (There are some other cases for K + P v K, but they don't apply here.) The previous anonymous achieved that. I may have achieved it as well in my post apparently @ four minutes to midnight. I welcome criticism, but you need to spell it out for me, as I am not too bright.

Anonymous said...

Sorry. "The previous anonymous achieved that. I may have achieved it as well ..."

Substitute: "The previous anonymous prevented that. I may have prevented it as well ..."

Anonymous said...

AOP: it was a general comment, no disagreement intended. I mentioned it because it seemed to boil down to that key position, with several lines going that way. But there is a teeny bug in your 11:56 post: 5. ... Kb3 and 9. ... c1=Q#.

I suggest the formal solution should read:

1. Kc2 Ka5 2. Kb3 a2 3. Kb2 Kb4 (not 3. ... Kxa4 4. c5 =). Now 4. Ka1 holds on, just, as it has to for 4. c5 is lost after 4. ... dxc5 5. Ka1 Kb3 and mate on move 9, and 4. a5 is met by 4. ... Kxa5 5. Kxa2 Ka4 or 5. ... Kb4 -+.

Funnily enough, White seems to draw in the position after move 3 with or without the move. He just bounces between a1 and b2 waiting for a commitment from Black, of course meeting 1. ... Kxa4 with 2. c5! dxc5 3. Kxa2 =.

ejh said...

That looks pretty good to me. The study is by N. Grigoriev, 1923, and I discovered it here (you want Étude 1923-1 from the drop-down menu). Noticing the Malevich piece, you may recall that the site was listed among our Chess in Art resources: more art, chess and studies can be found here.