Monday, January 02, 2012

The twelve puzzles of Xmas



V. Platov and M. Platov, 1909

White to play and win

13 comments:

John Cox said...

I fancy your better-educated readers, like me, might have seen this one before. Though I must say I can't remember where.

ejh said...

Could have been anywhere, this one's all over the place, though I actually saw it in a newspaper column (no,not that one) earlier this year.

Jonathan B said...

I might be confusing two different ones, but isn't this the most reproduced study of all time (because the Soviet state claimed Lenin - or maybe Stalin - once solved it so the newspapers printed the diagram over and over again)?

Anonymous said...

This better-educated reader has seen it before somewhere. He put it through his machine to see if it would spot the idea. It did, irritatingly, in about a nanosecond. At least we now know it's not cooked.

Anonymous said...

The BER has found where he saw it: The Even More Complete Chess Addict p. 284, sol p. 297: "This was Lenin's favourite study".

Campion said...

This PER doesn't remember seeing it in the Even More Complete Chess Addict, although he is reminded of other studies where White allows Black to Queen before having a minor piece+pawn mate (Kubbel?)

Anwyay, after several false starts, I'm going for 1. Bf6 d4 2. Ne2!

(I am guessing, since I'm terrible with endgame calculations, that after 2. Nf3 a1=Q 3. Bxd4+ Qxd4 4. Nxd4 Kxd4 Black has time to get the king to f7 and box in White's king.)

When 2 ... a1=Q 3. Nc1! h6 (3 ... Qa5 4 Bxd4+ Kxd4 5 Nb3+) 4. Bf8 and Black has to surrender the Queen to the skewer in order to fend off mate)

Anonymous said...

Almost right, but 4. Bf8 allows 4. ... Qa6 and Black's queen survives. To quote JC from today's Lazard study: "some small improvement on this sequence can be devised ...".

Yes, taking on d4 leads only to a draw.

Campion said...

Just realized last night while trying to get to sleep that Black meets 4. Bf8 with ... Qa6. Shouldn't be doing blindfold analysis at 3am I guess.

Anyway, 4. Be5 should work instead.

ejh said...

It doesn't though.

Not sure what Anonymous meant in the previous comment...

Campion said...

Everywhere I said Bf8 above was meant to be Bg7.

I can't see what Black does after 1. Bf6 d4 2. Ne2 a1=Q 3. Nc1 h6 4. Be5 ?

4... Kd2 5. Nb3+
4 ... Qxc1 5. Bf4+ Kxd3 6 Bxc1
4 ... Q anywhere else 5. Bf4 mate

Anonymous said...

Anon is equally stumped. From the TEMCCA p. 297 reference in comment 5:

"1. Bf6 d4 2. Ne2 a1=Q 3. Nc1 Qa5 4. Bxd4+ and 5. Nb3+ wins (or 3. ... h6 4. Be5 wins)."

ejh said...

OK, I think it's clear now. I was struggling with the comment about taking on d4 only leading to a draw. Anyway, 3...h6 4.Be5!, or 3...Qa5 4.Bxd4+ does the job.

Originally published in Rigaer Tageblatt, 1909, and reproduced in about a million places since. I happened to come across it in Leontxo García's El País column on 11 June of last year.

Anonymous said...

Ah. I referred to Campion's comment "... 2. Nf3 a1=Q 3. Bxd4+ Qxd4 4. Nxd4 Kxd4 Black has time to get the king to f7 and box in White's king". I should have phrased it "... swapping on d4 ...".