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| Jan-27-09 | | hedgeh0g: Again, this position is depicted in Forcing Chess Moves. I think someone on the CG.com team has a copy of this book :P |
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| Jan-27-09 | | Dr. J: <MichaelJHuman> I too could find nothing better than 20 ... Qxb4 with a winning endgame. Other coincidences:
1) My first initial is J and my middle name is Michael. 2) I am human. |
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Jan-27-09
 | | cu8sfan: <MostlyAverageJoe: My human-based control method (listening to my son's thinking aloud about the puzzle - he did solve it, BTW)> Is this the boy in your avatar? Now I feel embarrassed for not solving it. (-; |
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| Jan-27-09 | | fyad reject: im not good enough to see the alternative lines that everyone is talking about, so, mirabile dictu, i solved a tuesday puzzle |
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| Jan-27-09 | | Intrepid Spiff: <dzechiel: 21 Rxd1 Nxb4 22 cxb4 Qxb4+ 23 Ke2 (23 Rd2 Rd8 is ugly) 23...Bc4+ 24 Kf3 g4#> I think 24... g4 is not mate: 25 Kxg4 (the bishop is blocking the queen) |
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| Jan-27-09 | | patzer2: For today's Tuesday solution, Black plays the decoy sham sacrifice 20...Rd1+! to deflect the King or Rook and win the Queen. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | patzer2: Leonard Barden, The Batsford Chess Puzzle Book, 2002: "...it will pay to remember Cecil Purdy's advice to examine all checks and captures, however improbable they look at first sight..." |
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| Jan-27-09 | | dukesterdog2: Took me a couple minutes, but I did get Rd1+. Would likely have missed this in an actual game though. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | patzer2: The deflection 18...Nb4!? is interesting and with a little help from White (i.e. 19. Qe4?) turns out to be the winning move. Don't have a Chess engine handy at the moment, so this is just a guess. However, it would appear 18. bxc3?! might be the move that gives Black the advantage. Instead, I think 18. Qxb3 gives White near equal chances. Instead of 19. Qe4?, I suppose White could try 19. Qb2. After 19. Qb2 Nxa2 20. Be2 Qxc3 22. Bf3 Bd5  , White can still make a game of it. Note that 19. cxb4? loses to a discovered check after 19...Qxb4+ 20. Ke2 Bc4+ 21. Kf3 g4+ 22. Kxg4 Bd3+  . |
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| Jan-27-09 | | Manic: I did get the puzzle, but I also thought that 20...Nxb4 would win. Thanks to <MAJ> for pointing out that it hands white the game. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | Eduardo Leon: I thought 20. ... Nxb4 was enough, but then I saw 21. Rxa5 Nc2+ 22. Ke2 Bc4+ 23. Kf3 and, while Black is still better, it doesn't seem like a clear instant win. Then, I saw that if, after 20. ... Nxc3, White was forced to take the queen with the rook (21. Rxa5), obviously Black would give mate at d1. However, White would play 21. Qxa5 instead. Then, I saw the light. I found that, in the first line analyzed, white's rook at a1 prevented the immediate 20. ... Nxb4, so I thought it would be a good idea to displace the rook first with 20. ... Rd1+. However, White could reply 21. Kxd1 or 21. Ke2. But, in either case, Black would play 21. ... Nxc3+, winning the queen. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | SickedChess: got it in ten seconds! |
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| Jan-27-09 | | njchess: It took longer than I would have liked because I was looking for a mating sequence. But, I got Rd1+ winning the queen. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | JG27Pyth: Analyzing Nc3 and Nxb4 took a while...
In most problems it becomes clear (in retrospect) that logical and focused analysis could have led me to the correct 'tools' very efficiently. But today, even after finding the solution and reexamining the problem, I don't think I made any error investigating Nc3 and Nxb4 ahead of Re1+ -- those moves had to be looked at before moving on. Black wins Queen and pawn for Rook and N which is generally, but necessarily decisive; however with White's pieces either uncoordinated targets or inactive, and without a hint of counterplay, it was time for White to tip-over the King. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | johnlspouge: Tuesday (Easy):
Suba vs Portisch, 1984 (20…?) Black to play and win.
Material: N for B. The White Ke1 has 1 legal move and is in the center, open to checks along the back-rank and potentially along the a5-e1 diagonal. The Black Qa5 is on the diagonal, obscured by the White Qb4 and Pc3. The Black Na2 can capture Qb4, and thence check Ke1. No simple mate is apparent, but the variation suggests Na7 can do some damage in the 3 moves to reach e1. Black can win a P with 20…Qxb4 21.cxb4 Nxb4, because of the threat 22…Nc7+ 23…Bc4#, but there might be something better. Candidates (20…) Qxb4, Nxb4, Nxc3
I missed 20…Rd1+ completely, being distracted by other good variations. Today’s puzzle is a good lesson in examining the consequences of all checks, captures, and threats. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | johnlspouge: < <JG27Pyth> wrote: Analyzing Nc3 and Nxb4 took a while... [snip] I don't think I made any error investigating Nc3 and Nxb4 ahead of Re1+ -- those moves had to be looked at before moving on. > I disagree, <JG27Pyth>, although of course we are each finding our own way. Today, I was acutely aware of ignoring my primary rule of chess analysis: look at all forcing moves first. The move 20...Rd1+ is killing compared to the alternatives, and like many improbable but forcing moves, <it does not take much time to analyze>. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | Utopian2020: A good puzzle for Tuesday. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | UnsoundHero: If 18 Qxc3? Nb4 threatens ...Rac8 & ...Nc2+. 19 Rc1 stops ...Nc2+, but falls victim to Rac8 embarassing Qc3 & Rc1. Or 19 Rd1 Nc2+ 20 Ke2 Qxc3 21 bxc3 Bc4+ 22 Kf3 Rxd1 winning 2 rooks for a bishop. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | UnsoundHero: 19 Qb2 looks better than the game's 19 Qe4. White doesn't fear 19...Nd3+ 20 Bxd3 Rxd3 21 0-0. Instead, 19...Nd5 20 Be5 Nxe3 21 Bf6 Nc4 22 Bxc4 Bxc4 23 Bxd8 Rxd8 looks interesting. White is an exchange up, but white's king is a sitting duck. Black should win. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | kevin86: A unique combination! The first move attempts to break the pin on black's knight-to allow for capture of the queen by the knight. It does move the king to a spot to be checked. The second move removes the queen's defender with a check-to allow for the queen to take queen. A good paraphrase of the mounty slogan:we get our queen! |
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| Jan-27-09 | | dzechiel: <Kasputin: At first I thought this was checkmate too, but I don't think it is (white can play 25. Kxg4).> You are right, of course. In my mind's eye I saw the queen on b4 protecting the pawn on g4, but the bishop check on move 23 severs that connection. <sigh> |
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| Jan-27-09 | | Patriot: I gave myself 45 seconds to solve it and timed out. After about 2 minutes, I considered 20...Rd1+ and the following lines. A) 21.Kxd1 Nxc3+ removes the guard on the white queen and allows 22...Qxb4 next. B) 21.Ke2 Nxc3+
C) 21.Rxd1 Nxb4 22.cxb4 Qxb4+ wins a queen and pawn for rook and knight. This seemed a bit harder than the norm on Tuesday's. But like others, I was distracted by 20...Nxb4 rather than looking at checks first. I know that some of you give yourselves x amount of time to solve these per day. How much time do you think is reasonable for Tuesday problems? What about other days of the week? |
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| Jan-27-09 | | mworld: <I know that some of you give yourselves x amount of time to solve these per day. How much time do you think is reasonable for Tuesday problems? What about other days of the week?
>
i do that - i try to do mon-wednesday in roughly under 30 seconds and then I give myself a minute or two on thursday/friday. 5 mins on the rest of the weekend (and that's still not enough, sigh) |
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| Jan-27-09 | | MiCrooks: I expect Monday to be pratically instantaneous, Tuesday 10 secs or so, going up another 10 secs or so per day after that, with the exception of Sat and Sunday. It obviously ends up depending on the puzzle and whether you happen to suffer blindness that day or not! Today I saw the move with the 10 sec time frame. It then took another 5-10 to verify that it worked in all cases. Though process - want to play NxQ but then I drop my Queen, so is there anyway to either move my Queen with tempo or distract the Rook. Rd1 then popped right up. The verification had a snag as I had initially wanted to play Qd5+ on Kxd1 but obviously Qd4 spoils that. But being sold on the move it only took another sec or so to see Nxc3+ instead. |
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| Jan-27-09 | | newton296: It took me about 7.2 seconds to get this . Well within the acceptable time frame for a snowy Tuesday. |
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