Is it something to do with the fact that you always post at 7.55? Watch out - this is going to take over from the actual puzzles if you're not careful! I haven't even looked at the puzzle yet. Must go -time to get my FIDE rating mauled by underrated juniors.
The pawn on h7 should have been a black pawn? http://www.bstephen.me.uk/cgi-bin/meson_display.pl?pid=19551 Soln 1. Bh5 Kxh5 2. Kg7 h6 3. Kf6 Kh4 4. Kg6#
My apologies: the diagram was indeed incorrectly rendered, and has now been put right. Very impressive to solve it with an incorrect diagram, I must say.
I think this is one of the 1st chess puzzles I remember solving on my own (if I recall correctly it was in one of Bill Hartston's chess columns in the Independent). Took me *ages* to get, and was done pretty much by brute-force elimination of the impossible to find the highly improbable key.
One more deliberately belated and secretive comment reflecting on the elements that make for chess beauty according to Levitt and Friedgood. It's interesting that Campion should use the word "beautiful" - in what does it reside in this puzzle? Hmmm...
As the they get longer, then "Flow" comes into play: "Smoothness of movement. It relates to the length of the sequence of moves for which the tension is dynamically maintained." as L & F put it. That White King manoeuvre shows a bit of flow, doesn't it?
And there's some Paradox in the initial Bishop sacrifice (though it doesn't last for long because the purpose becomes apparent more or less straight away - to release the Black King), but then the final discovered check that's a bit "Deep" (definition later).
BTW I think that the logical reasoning underpinning the solution to #1 has a "flow" of a conceptual/logical, rather than a concrete/visual, kind.
Is it something to do with the fact that you always post at 7.55? Watch out - this is going to take over from the actual puzzles if you're not careful! I haven't even looked at the puzzle yet. Must go -time to get my FIDE rating mauled by underrated juniors.
ReplyDeletePG
1. Bh5 Kxh5 2. Kg8 Kg6 3. h8=Q Kf5 4. Qf6#. Quite easy. Mate in 5 tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteWhy are those h-pawns there?
ReplyDeleteThe pawn on h7 should have been a black pawn?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bstephen.me.uk/cgi-bin/meson_display.pl?pid=19551
Soln
1. Bh5 Kxh5 2. Kg7 h6 3. Kf6 Kh4 4. Kg6#
Should the Black h-pawn be on h4, with no White h7 pawn? Then it goes 1. Bh5 Kxh5 2. Kg7 h3 3. Kf6 Kh4 4. Kg6#.
ReplyDeleteNo, that's full of holes. I do remember a finish like that in a #4 problem, though.
ReplyDeleteCancel that! Ta, other-anon.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies: the diagram was indeed incorrectly rendered, and has now been put right. Very impressive to solve it with an incorrect diagram, I must say.
ReplyDeleteIs it something to do with the fact that you always post at 7.55?
ReplyDeleteNo!
Problem originally published in Aufgaben fur Schachspieler, acording to my source, which was Chessbase, 12 September 2010 : Kavalek at Huffington: Chess Great Bent Larsen.
ReplyDeleteYes, look here
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=7GwCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5
I think this is one of the 1st chess puzzles I remember solving on my own (if I recall correctly it was in one of Bill Hartston's chess columns in the Independent). Took me *ages* to get, and was done pretty much by brute-force elimination of the impossible to find the highly improbable key.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, too.
One more deliberately belated and secretive comment reflecting on the elements that make for chess beauty according to Levitt and Friedgood. It's interesting that Campion should use the word "beautiful" - in what does it reside in this puzzle? Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteAs the they get longer, then "Flow" comes into play: "Smoothness of movement. It relates to the length of the sequence of moves for which the tension is dynamically maintained." as L & F put it. That White King manoeuvre shows a bit of flow, doesn't it?
And there's some Paradox in the initial Bishop sacrifice (though it doesn't last for long because the purpose becomes apparent more or less straight away - to release the Black King), but then the final discovered check that's a bit "Deep" (definition later).
BTW I think that the logical reasoning underpinning the solution to #1 has a "flow" of a conceptual/logical, rather than a concrete/visual, kind.
This L & F stuff is good fun. As are the puzzles.