It is Saturday Open Forum! What would you like to discuss? Super Mtel? The 2007 Frank K. Berry US Championship? The National Scholastic Chess Championship? Aronian defeating Kramnik? The USCF debacle of losing another important sponsor in the past week?
The forum is yours!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Dr. Moskow! Don’t walk away please. The new board with Susan will be very professional with you. Give them a chance!
It was nice to see Aronian playing well. He’ll be the next world champion!
I’m looking forward to the US Championship. I think Ehlvest will win.
I can think of nothing more entertaining than waiting to see Sam Sloan on the Executive Board with Susan. Would be a perfect setup for the part two sequel: “The revenge of Susan Polgar.”
Hello,
Aronian has been better then Kramnik
and is being better but to take out WCC from Russia is the another matter. There are additional obstacles. R.J. Fischer and G.Kamsky could have tell something about.
There will be a special group of russian players (and not only) called to prepare defence of the title.;-)
Regards
Pony.
Hi Susan
What is your position on the rule change that says that we cannot write down our move before playing it? And the move to Tennessee? As far as I can tell, only one candidate for the board has addressed the rule change, which is in my mind the most egregious example of the wrong way to cultivate corporate sponsorship. What do you think?
Brenan
Kramnik lost a match and look who’s there, Pony climbed again out of his hole.
“Aronian has been better…” : was he also better in Monaco ?
Of course Aronian is one of the best players in the world, so it’s not a shame for Kramnik to lose a rapid match against him.
Kramnik has been playing very well since he beat Topalov in Elista, so your conclusions are extremely premature.
Your comments, devoid of any objectivity and intelligence, smell
of bigotry and Russophobia, there’s
really not much more in it than that.
You don’t seem to realize that your favorite player, Ponomariov,
is also an ethnic Russian (as is Karjakin, by the way, and some other Ukrainian players).
Have fun there in your hole,
thinking up conspiracy theories and cursing anything russian.
Regards,
Steven.
Here is a puzzle i designed:
White: Kh3, Qe8, pawns c3, h5
Black: Kd5, Bg5, Ne5, pawns c4, h6
Question: can white win?
It is not a tactical puzzle but i think the basic idea is kind of neat.
WJ
I am sickened by people like Kasparov who go about bringing down people just so that they can be the next “ruler” He has tried it with FIDE and is now trying it with Putin. We need people who believe in democratic governments not just at elections time but also during the day-to-day operations. The Republicans need to learn this and so do many of us here. This is not idealism but it may need a re-hash of the constitution to give the minority a stronger whip in the government. The story is same in the world of chess too. GM Susan, do you support the idea of re-hashing the USCF constitution to allow the non-majority a say? This would have avoided a lot of problems like you have pointed out. But this would mean, you yourself should be willing to give up power and govern in a democratic fashion. 🙂
Rgds M.
Hello WJ,
I’d say no – but perhaps I have overseen a zugzwang position which allows white to win.
My idea: white just has to activite his king to have a chance to win – but black’s figures build up a very good barricade.
Only way for the white king seems to be leaving the prison via a3 (via d1).
As soon as the white king has reached d1 black plays Nd3 and as soon as the white king is on a2 black plays Bc1.
There’s no way to activate white’s king.
Only chance I see is to force black by zugzwang to open the way for white’s king – but I don’t see a zugzwang here.
By the way I much more like constructive posts like your one than arguiing posts like some above.
Thanks!
Jochen
WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH GATA KAMSKY!?!?!?
Hi Jochen,
Thanks for trying the puzzle – your try is very good! Centralization of the king is the right idea. And indeed, Black’s minor pieces are creating a formidable roadblock (does it remind you of anything?). You have also seen correctly that a3 is the only entryway. Your suggestion for Black to stop the white from going through there is interesting. However, we shouldn’t forget that White also has a queen to work with…
WJ
Congratulations to Susan. In one day she has become a Doctor and a SPICE girl.
Best wishes to Susan and Paul with the SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence) program.
Okay, let’s rethink the problem.
I have a winning idea for white if black just does what I said above.
Just thinking white’s king already on c2, black’s knight going to d3.
Then 1. Qd7+, Kc5 (other moves and 2. Qd4+ wins c4) 2. Qd4+ Kb5 3. Qd5+, Nb6 4. Qxg5 and white’s pawn is unstoppable.
What black can do to prevent this:
move his bishop to a better field before so white should prevent this….
Hmmmm, what about centralizing the queen first. Ah, 1. Qa8+ looks strong. Black mustn’t play Nc6 because then 2. Kh3-g4-f5 should win.
But after other moves (e.g. Kd6) white can play 2. Qe4! (and probably 3. Qd4… – I don’t know until now) and after that black’s knight is bound to c4.
White king …. to a2 then Bc1 (black has nothing better!?).
If white attacks the bishop with the queen black can play Nd3! …. no, he can’t!
Here’s my winning plan:
1. Qa8+ 2. Qe4 (and she stays there!) black’s king should be on d6or e6 now.
White’s king to b1. On his way he eventually loses one tempo, so that in all cases after Kb1 black has to play Ke6 (black can’t triangulate!). So after n. Ka2 Bc1 n+1. Qe1 black can’t move the knight so he has to reopen the way for the white king so white should win (easily!?).
Other black tries like defending the knight with the bishop don’t seem to be good defenses, too.
What do you say?
What do others say? I need help. 🙂
Jochen
PS: “roadblock” doesn’t say anything to me!? hmmm, that’s another puzzle to me. 😉
Hi again WJ,
the puzzle won’t let me sleep (it’s about 2:50 here) – I have found two new “things” about the problem.
My last post isn’t activated until now so I can not very well refer to it – let’s try.
Bd2 (attacking c3, why didn’t I try that earlyier?) seems to be a good move in some cases (of course when the king is not on d6) so white’s queen probably has to go to d4 – instead of staying on e4 like proposed above.
With Q on d4 black CAN triangulate with his king and in addition to that white can’t attack the bishop while captivate (I hope that word is the correct chess word, I found the translation in the internet without refering to chess) the knight.
BUT if black’s knight can’t go to d3 white can simply play K…-d1-c2-b2! (I didn’t see that simple move Kb2 first – I had just in mind that it is impossible), e.g. Nd3+ after Kb2 then Ka2! and the knight has to re-go to e5 because of c4 and then white can finally play Ka3 (and after that Ka3-a4-b5 NOT on b4/a5….).
If that isn’t correct, too, I have to think again….. but now I really should go to sleep.
Jochen
PS: Btw., Susan, I still have the captcha-problem….
Hi Jochen,
Your reasoning is very systematic and detailed. Your variations prove that Black cannot prevent White’s King from reaching a3. Zugzwang (which is hard to achieve in this position) is not even needed for that.
But that’s not the end of it! Once White’s king gets to b4, Black can set up another fortress, with his king on d5, d6, or e6. If White manages to play Kc5, then Be3+ or Be7+ will immediately drive him out! Or not?!
(Btw, this is good anti-computer puzzle. The king march from h3 to b4 requires at least 18 ply, and after Kb4 there is no immediate win. The computer cannot calculate that deeply by brute force and doesn’t “understand” the idea of activating the king. My Fritz 8 wanders around aimlessly with the queen, and moves the king to e1 but leaves it there, leading to a draw by the 50-move rule. I wonder if some other program can find the winning plan.)
WJ
I don’t see the second fortress. With Q on d4 black can’t play Be3+.
White’s king goes Ka3-a4-b5-b6 (Qd4 won’t let black play Bd8+) and finally Kc7.
In between black can make little moves with his bishop (but neither to d8 nor to f4) and with kis king.
After Kc7 we need a new plan to win (I start numerate with 1 again):
It seems as if white won if his king entered d5. Then white threats to capture the knight and if black’s bishop defends it from f4 to play Qe4+, Kg5/4 (forced) followed by Ke6.
White can operate on most of the white squares without danger!
White is going to play Kf5 later so that black’s bishop must decide: defending e5 or h6. White is going to win h6 and the game.
Black can’t do anything against white’s king entering f5.
E.g. 0.-, Kg4 1. Ke6 Kg5 2. Qe2+ and white can even try to mate black’s king!
After Bf6 (instead of Bf4 there are similar variations (1. Qe4+, Kg5 2. Ke6 and white threats to play Qg2 and Kf5 and mate soon).
So white has to get his king centralized to e4, black has to prevent that.
Back to the position after Kc7 (Qd4 still on d4) black’s king should be on e6 to best prevent it. Now we “simply” play 1. Qb6+ and e.g. Kd5 2. Qd6+ Ke4 3. Qd4+, Kf5 4. Kd6! and 5. Kd5.
Last black try I see (there are probably many I don’t see, is to play (earlier) Kf5 and Bf4 to prevent white from reaching c7. But then white enters over Kb6-c5!-d5 – the end is similay to that above.
So my actual proposal for the hole game:
White centers his queen to prevent black from prisoning white’s king.
White’s king leaves the “fortress” over a3.
White’s king proceeds to d5 – black can’t prevent that.
White goes over the white fields to push black’s king back in direction of the h-file.
If possible white can even mate black (for example when black’s king captures h5 in some variations); else white proceeds to f5 with his king so that black’s bishop can’t defend knight AND pawn
White wins pawn h6.
So again my question: what do you think? Do you see any good defenses for black?
Jochen
PS: hard one – is there no one here to help me?
Hi Jochen,
Your solution is correct! The white king has to enter through c7 and d6 (i think Black can prevent the white king from entering directly through c5-d5). After that, playing on the white squares (e.g. Kd5-e4-f5) indeed leaves Black defenseless. Good job!
What i find remarkable is that with just two pieces Black can force the white king to walk all the way from h3 to c7. (And that a computer does not seem to find this plan even though there is little material on the board.)
WJ
Puh, thanks a lot for this puzzle, WJ!
Was hard work but very interesting!
Almost unimaginable what difficulties white has to handle on his (easy looking) way.
I’m looking forward to read more from you on this blog!
Best wishes,
Jochen