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| Jul-02-10 | | smitha1: <Once> I hope your medical problems are solved. All the best: you are well remembered and prayed for. This does not seem to have affected your writing: if anything, I enjoy your responses more every day. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | smitha1: I am convinced that the entire concept of easy vs difficult is very subjective: I have fluffed days that every pawn pusher and his dog got right merely by breathing the air around the monitor without bothering to look at the puzzle itself. Today's puzzle, on the other hand, surprised some pretty good puzzlers, but came to me without much difficulty. The message?
The difficulty level can only be a fallible general gauge that is subject to personal factors outside CGs control such as your personal playing experience, the studies you have done, the column you read yesterday, not even to mention the vagaries of the working of each brain. When all is said and done, the frailties of the subjective judgment of CG staff seem less important. So, well done CG: I love the puzzles every day, even on days (such as yesterday) when I got the answer right for all the wrong reasons, which in my mind deserves a minus mark. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | Marmot PFL: This loks winnable- 23...Rd1 24 Rc1 Bd5+ 25 f3 (Kg1 Qh3 24 f3 Rd2) Bxf3+ 26 Rxf3 Qxf3+ 27 Kg1 Rd8-d2 and wins. If there is more to it than this i'm missing it, so not sure why its a 3-star. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | CHESSTTCAMPS: I'm trying now to think why I thought that 23... f4 was critical to the combination, but it certainly made sense at 1 a.m. :>) |
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| Jul-02-10 | | YetAnotherAmateur: <M Hassan>
After your sequence:
23......Rd1
24.Rxd1 Rxd1+
25.Qxd1 Qxd1+
White loses more than his queen, because of:
26. Kg2 Bd5+
27. Kh3 Qh5# |
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Jul-02-10
 | | Once: <smitha1> Thanks. You make a very good point about the difficulty rating. There is a heck of a lot of subjectivity going on here. I found today's to be fairly easy - so much so that I spent quite a while looking for the crafty refutation in case it was another spoiler. But I have also struggled with much easier puzzles than this one. The difficulty of a puzzle seems to relate to a number of different factors: 1. How many reasonable candidate moves there are to look at. 2. How unlikely the first move seems to be - eg sacrificing a piece, ignoring a threat or putting a piece en prise. 3. The number of variations that need to be calculated - ie lots of different replies by your opponent. 4. The depth of analysis needed to reach a resolution - ie how many moves do we need to consider from the starting position. 5. The need to find subsequent unusual moves - eg to sacrifice a second piece. For me, today's puzzle belongs mostly in the first category. There aren't any hard to spot moves in here (no sacrifices and nothing put en prise). White's responses are pretty much forced and the lines aren't too long. But there are lots of choices from the starting position, and that can make it tough to find the right one. And this type of difficult puzzle brings with it an element of luck. With so many choices, if you happen to chance on the right answer fairly early on you can save yourself a lot of hard work trying to make inferior lines work. Mind you, practise and memory certainly helps too! |
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Jul-02-10
 | | chrisowen: Black hands the blow off that centre file. Nails the queen once rooks get in the spirit boogerman Rd1 levels pinch. White plainly cling to comic defence. Isnt it quick for Schulz build momentum in par after breakdown error knight over. |
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Jul-02-10
| | chrisowen: Then what? |
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Jul-02-10
| | chrisowen: Done a doozy 23..Rd1 catches white out. Awkward pin down back rank tips good balance over. Tall order fry 27..Qf3 burgles. Assume grimmace spraying g2 requiring all but castle daftness would have took d1 chess equivalent like a purple nurple from it jogging queen in. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | SuperPatzer77: I completely agree with <dzechiel>'s commentary - 26...Qh3! (faster and better than 26...R8d2). White has no defense against the double mating threats of 27...Qxf1# and 27...Qg2#  SuperPatzer77 |
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Jul-02-10
 | | kevin86: I couldn't figure this one out. Pity the black rook pawn...it prevents a mate with a queen sac. |
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Jul-02-10
| | Once: <SuperPatzer77> I thought so too, but Fritzie doesn't agree. According to the silicon monster, 26... Qh3 is mate in six and 26... R8d2 is a shade faster with mate in five. Here's the mate in six:
26... Qh3 27. Kf2 R8d2+ 28. Ke3 Re2 29. Kf4 Rd4+ 30. Qe4 Rxe4+ 31. Kxf3 Qg2# 
click for larger viewAnd here's two versions of the mate in five:
26...R8d2 27. h4 Rg2+ 28. Kh1 Rf2+ 29. Kg1 Rfxf1+ 30. Kh2 Rh1# or 29. Nxf3 Qxf3+ 30. Kg1 Qg2#
So I think we have to say that 26...R8d2 is slightly faster but 26...Qh3 also wins. It's interesting that Fritz found tougher defences for both moves than I had foreseen. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | YouRang: <Once> I love Sherlock Holmes, and so I thought your missive was especially pleasant to read today. Anyway, in my role as an "assistant junior detective", I found a few traces of today's solution, but intermixed with them were some false leads. The net effect was that I found myself solidly in control of a dead end. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | patzer2: For today's Friday puzzle, Black's 23...Rd1!! combines a number of tactics, including double attack, pinning, decoy, deflection and mate threats to secure the win. The key followup moves are 24...Bd5+! and 26...R8d2! Here's a breakout played using Fritz 10:
<23...Rd1!!>
This surprise double attack and pinning move was set up by 21...f5! <24. Rc1> This reply is forced. If 24. Rxd1, then 24...Rxd1+ 25. Qxd1 Qxd1+ 26. Kg2 Qa1 27. Re3 Qxa2 wins decisive material. <24... Bd5+!> This move forces Whites reply and allows Black the winning attack which follows. <25. f3>
If 25. Kg1 Qh3  forces a mate-in-one to follow.
< 25... Bxf3+ 26. Kg1> If 26.Nxf3 then it's 26...Qxf3+ 27. Kg1 Qxf1#.
<26... R8d2!> This mate threat is probably the quickest and easiest way to finish it, even though 26...Qh3! 27. Kf2 R8d2+! also wins quickly. <27. Nxf3 >
If 27. h4, then Black mates with 27...Rg2+ 28. Kh1 Rxg3+ 29. Nxf3 Qxf3+ 30. Kh2 Qg2#. <27... Qxf3 0-1>
White resigns as he cannot prevent mate-in-one. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | WhiteRook48: took a long time to get rd1 |
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Jul-02-10
 | | agb2002: Black has a bishop for a knight and a pawn.
White threatens (N)Rxc6.
The light squares around the white castle are weak. The direct 23... Bd5+ is met with 24.f3, which suggests removing a defender, the rook on f1, with 23... Rd1 24.Rc1 (24.Rxd1 Rxd1+ wins the queen for a rook) Bd5+: A) 25.f3 Bxf3+ 26.Kg1 (26.Nxf3 Qxf3+ 27.Kg1 Qxf1#) Qh3 - + with the double threat 27... Qxf1# and 27... Qg2#. B) 25.Kg1 Qh3 as in A. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | Crowaholic: I missed the point of the Rf1 pin and refrained from separating my rooks with 24. ..Bd5+. And I thought 24. ..R8d2 would work, but 25. h4 seems to be the perfect antidote. In the correct move order, h4 does not help White, as Once and patzer2 have demonstrated. |
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Jul-02-10
| | agb2002: <CHESSTTCAMPS: I'm trying now to think why I thought that 23... f4 was critical to the combination, but it certainly made sense at 1 a.m. :>) > I also saw 23... f4 but discarded it because of 24.Qg6+, without noticing that after 24... Qxg6 25.Nxg6 Bd5+ White loses the knight, probably because I already thought that 23... Rd1 was more promising. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | CHESSTTCAMPS: <gb2002> <I also saw 23... f4 but discarded it because of 24.Qg6+, without noticing that after 24... Qxg6 25.Nxg6 Bd5+ White loses the knight, probably because I already thought that 23... Rd1 was more promising.> Good point, I didn't even notice 24.Qg6+. The bottom line is that f4 probably does not toss the win, but it is completely irelevant to the combination. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | wals: 23.Nxe5 was a blunder. -5.48 from -0.66.
If 23.Kg1 had been played White could have played on with a chance of winning.23...Rd1 capitalised on White's error.
courtesy of Rybka 3 1-cpu: 3071mb hash: depth 17. |
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| Jul-02-10 | | Brandon plays: Bah... I failed this puzzle completely. Clever capitalization of that error. I have an excuse that I'm tired after working today.;) |
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| Jul-02-10 | | felixd: Very easy once we got the idea.
The first thing we notice is the idea of the mate with the bishop in d5 and the queen in h3. Then, the only thing we need to do is to play Rd1+ before in order to avoid an annoying f3. |
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| Jul-03-10 | | Gilmoy: I actually saw 23..Rd2 first (nigh-instantly), with a dreadful sideways pin on f2. Took a minute to see <23..Rd1 24.Rc1>. I also considered 23..f4, but gave it a demerit because fxg3 Rxg3+ costs a tempo. |
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| Jul-10-10 | | falso contacto: credit to jorgito. |
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| Jul-10-10 | | I Like Fish: exactamente ... |
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