First puzzle of 2008

9 comments

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  nathan says:

  January 1, 2008 at 7:44 am

  Looks drawn to me. Qxc3 has to be white’s first move then Qh7 seems to be black’s only reply (must prevent Kf7+ and Kg6+). Then Kf5+ or Ke6+ is met by Qg7 and I don’t see how white can improve. I could easily be missing a good winning line, of course 🙂

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  Anonymous says:

  January 1, 2008 at 7:45 am

  Qxc3 then Qf3+ and black wins.

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  Anonymous says:

  January 1, 2008 at 7:57 am

  1 Qd4 Kg8
  2 Qd5+ Kh8
  3 Qe5 and mates soon

  Or

  1 Qd4 Kh7
  2 Nf8+ Kg8
  3 Qd5+ Kh8
  4 Qe5 and mates soon

  Or

  1 Qd4 Kh7
  2 Nf8+ Kh6
  3 Qe3+ Kh5
  4 Qg5#

  Aligning the white queen and king along the long diagonal against the black king is deadly here…

  Happy New Year!

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  Anonymous says:

  January 1, 2008 at 8:12 am

  However

  1 Qd4 Qh7 needs attention…
  2 Ke6+ Qg7
  3 Nf6 seems to put black in zugzwang

  Happy New Year again!

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  henryk says:

  January 1, 2008 at 8:17 am

  1.Qd4! wins.

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  Anonymous says:

  January 1, 2008 at 9:01 am

  this was a lateral thinking problem. the correct answer is ‘yes’ (it is a win, loss, or draw for white).

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  Anonymous says:

  January 1, 2008 at 2:56 pm

  i got puzzled by “difficult” and “no computer” 🙂

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  Anonymous says:

  January 1, 2008 at 4:11 pm

  I agree, Qd4 wins

  1.Qd4 Qh7
  2.Ke6+ Qg7
  3.Nf6wins!

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  Doctor B says:

  January 1, 2008 at 11:37 pm

  I started with suppose, it’s win. Variants:
  1.Qd4 Because of threats Kf7+ and Kg6+ there are not many answers. First some Queen moves:
  a) 1…Qg2 2.Kf7+ Kh7 3.Nf8+ Kh6 4.Qh8+, and 5.Qg7+ winning the Queen
  b) 1…Qh5 2.Ke7+ and 3.Nf6+ winning the Queen again
  c) 1…Qh7 This seems to be hard to win. There are two promising lines however…
  c1) 2.Ke6+ Qg7 3.Nf6 now after both 3…Qg6 and 3…Qf8 there is still work to find win
  c2) 2.Ne5 Qg7+ 3.Kf5 (or Ke6, but this position could follow with 2.Ke6+ also) and again I couldn’t find the win
  Even if I couldn’t find it, I think there might be win in line c1 (2Ke6+)
  d) 1…Kh7 2.Nf8+ Kg8 3.Qd5+ Kh8 4.Ng6+ wins with 5.Qf7+ 6.Qg7+ 7.Nf4+ 8.Qg5#
  e) 1…Kg8 This is hard again, because line 2.Qd5+ Kh8 3.Qe5 Qh7 4.Ke6+ Qg7 5.Nf6 Qg6! causes problems similar to line c1…
  As conclusion I can say, I think this is win, but I cannot find the ultimate key. I’ll post later more if I find somethings to lines c1 and e…