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| May-03-09 | | onesax: OK, I'm admitting defeat here. Though I did only look at it for a minute or less ... and I could've sworn there was no pawn on e5 :D Where did he come from? Chess blindness methinks :| I think that if I reached this position OTB, with time to think, I probably would have seen and played e4 ... to which after Qf2 (only move) I would've looked at Nxh3+ ... so I may have stumbled into this combination move-by-move. Certainly it gets easier to see to the end once you know there's a pawn on e5 :) And the sequence 30. ... e4 31. Qf2 Nxh3+ 32. gxh3 Rg7+ is all forcing and easy to see. It's only the next move and the following Qc8-Qh8 manouvre to mate that's tricky. Given how easily white got mated at the end, wouldn't 33. Qg2 have been a more tenacious defence? I guess it's still winning for black, but there's still some more tunnel before the fat lady starts to walk up to the microphone ... |
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| May-03-09 | | Confuse: Its always nice to see Sunday. The first 3 moves at least... |
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| May-03-09 | | patzer2: For today's Sunday puzzle solution, the demolition 31...Nxh3+!! undermines the weakened White castled position. The key to the follow-up is seeing the final piece sacrifice 33...Rxh3+! followed by the neat Queen retreat and deflection check 34...Qc8+! White has no good defense against the coming 35...Qh8+  . |
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| May-03-09 | | NewLine: So, am I to understand that after 27..Nf4! , white's still having an escape, or that this is too difficult to see even for 'insane' level? |
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May-03-09
 | | al wazir: The first couple of moves were easy, given that black is supposed to have a win: 30...e4 (I would have played that even if this weren't set as a problem) 31. Qf2 Nxh3+ 32. gxh3. Now I wanted to play 32...Rxh3, which seems to do the job. If 33. Rfe1, then 33...Qg6+ 34. Kf1 (34. Qg2? Rg3) Rh1+ 35. Ke2 Qg4+. If instead 33. Rfd1, then 33...Rxd1+ 34. Rxd1 and continue as above. If white plays 33. Kg2, then 33...Rdh7, with threats of 34...Rh7+ and Qg6+. If 33...Qg2, then 34. Rxe3, and black is two ♙s up. Yes, I think 32...Rxh3 would have won. |
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| May-03-09 | | dzechiel: Black to move (30...?). Material even. "Insane."
White's in difficulty here, but threatens to play 31 Qxc6+, removing a lot of the pressure. Black has three moves at his disposal that stop this liquidation (at least for now): - 30...Ne2+
- 30...Nxh3+
- 30...e4
Black also has 30...Nd5 or 30...Re5, but both of those just feel bad, as they involve self-pins that rarely advance one's cause. No, the move that has the best "feel" for me is 30...Nxh3+
Not only does this move prevent the exchange of queens (for at least one move), it helps to rip open the king side so that black's rook on d7 can participate in the king assault. 31 gxh3
Failure to capture the knight is not an option. On 31 Kh2 or 31 Kh1 black will get to play 31...Ng5+ and 32...Nxf3, putting the game away. And of course white doesn't want to play 31 Qxh3 Rxh3. 31...Rg7+
OK, decision time for white. He can play either
- 32 Kh2 or
- 32 Kf2
Playing 32 Kh1 loses instantly to 32...Rxh3#.
OK, I'm not seeing the ending combination here (which isn't surprising on an "insane" position). Time to check and see what really happened. =====
OK, my initial move was wrong (or at least out of order). Looking forward to Monday. |
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| May-03-09 | | butilikefur: 30...e4 31. Qf2 Nxh3+ 32. gxh3 Rg7+ 33. Kh2 Qc7+ 34. Bf4 Rxh3+ 35. Kxh3 Qc8+ 36. Kh2 Qh8+ mates. |
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| May-03-09 | | tdnn72: holy @#$%.. |
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| May-03-09 | | Takya Kotov: It's a good combination and not easy to for an amateur to spot, but a pro would expect to see this every time. Does that make it an "insane" puzzle? Probably not. |
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| May-03-09 | | Fezzik: I think the only reason I solved this one was the sheer fluke that I took Informant 93 with me on a camping trip this week. The Gavrilov-Solovjov position shows up as problem #8 after move 30...Qf2. Although I saw the basic idea of Nh3, I would have missed 30....e4 31.Qf2 and 34.Qc8+! if I hadn't already seen this position! While this isn't insanely complicated (perhaps there's a flaw behind 30...e4), it does take tremendous imagination to find the winning moves from the forest of good looking but losing ones. |
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| May-03-09 | | Fezzik: I just realised why the Informant problem started a move later than this one: White's best move, which loses, is probably 30....e4 31.Qxf4! Rf4 32.Rf4 and White is losing, but able to play for many more moves. |
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May-03-09
 | | LIFE Master AJ: Does 31.Qf2 qualify as a mistake/blunder? (BTW, I missed this one.) |
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| May-03-09 | | perkychesscat: Fezzik, I wonder if there's any way for White to try to setup a fortress after 31 Qxf4. No chance of a draw? |
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| May-03-09 | | Stormbringer: This doesn't feel like a proper Sunday to me.
I saw all the components including the rook and knight combo on h3, I even briefly looked at the pawn advance (on the theory that if it is Sunday it might be something subtle like moving the pawn). But I couldn't see anything decisive for black after exchanging rook and knight for queen. In retrospect, if White isn't willing to exchange away the queen, then the pawn move is a lot more forcing than it looked to me initially. That was pretty much my story for the week, I saw lots of pieces of the solutions, jut didn't put them together right. |
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| May-03-09 | | whiteshark: I calculated <30... e4 31 Qf2 Nxh3+ 32 gxh3 Rxh3 33 Qg2 Rxe3> as winning, but I missed the clou of the better <32... Rg7+!> |
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| May-03-09 | | gofer: I saw the following quite quickly...
30 ... e4
31 Qf2 Nxh3+
32 gxh3
and I liked Rg7+ but missed Qc8+ as the killer blow, so went on with... 32 .... Rxh3
which seems to have cleared all the lines to white king and with no real options for white... ...I dont have the time to spend on the further analysis to see where this was going, but felt a decent chess program would do the rest from there... ...can anyone put me out of my misery? Does 32 .... Rxh3
still win for black under "best" play or is it a completely flawed line? |
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| May-03-09 | | weary willy: I ..... solved... a ... Sunday
(good grief, I'm rubbish, if that's the pinnacle ...one Sunday) |
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| May-03-09 | | Nostrils: And the moral of this story is:
Always look before you (grab a pawn) leap. |
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| May-03-09 | | felixd: Wow,this isn't a sunday puzzle.. Or maybe I became a great tactician in one week :D |
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| May-03-09 | | sfm: <Fezzik: I just realised why the Informant problem started a move later...>
Aha! Good point! I was looking at 31.Qf4 and decided that only a loser would give up fighting. |
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| May-03-09 | | cheeseplayer: I never saw the pawn on e5! |
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| May-03-09 | | FrogC: I got as far as 33...Rxh3+ and then noticed that the White Bishop and Queen were preventing my intended Qh6 mate. At which point I decided I must be on the wrong track and soon gave up. That's the closest I've ever got to a Sunday puzzle. |
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| May-03-09 | | engineerX: The most impressive for me is that Black's combination begins earlier than the diagram position. With 27...Nf4 black has a forced win, which he demonstrated in the game. But I guess that would be too difficult a puzzle, |
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| May-03-09 | | tivrfoa: what make this insane is associate:
30. ... e4 with 34. ... Qc8+!!!
Maybe many people people get 30. ... e4, but few of them saw 34. ... Qc8. xD |
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| May-03-09 | | cyclon: Really great, particularly idea behind blacks last two moves; 33. -Rxh3+ and 34. -Qc8+. |
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+ sac: 31...Nxh3+