Puzzle of the week #54

Submitted by oldadmin on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 00:31

Level: 
3-Bishop
Chess Diagram: 

-r-----k
-----Rrp
---p----
-N-Bb---
P---p---
-QR---pq
-P---P--
------K-

Darren has been doing some very good puzzle solving work in the past couple of months. A few times his solutions have been chosen as the most interesting ones and have been posted here, including the one below! Tonight I decided to make it a "Darren week" since he has been the first one in a long time to come at the club (last week) and propose a puzzle. He receives full points (10) for this contribution, because the simple fact of looking for an interesting puzzle means work done! The above position has occured in the game A. Kosten - Chandler, Hastings 1991. Darren challenges you to find the solution for:
Black to play and mate in 5
Total available points for this puzzle is 10. The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #55.

Puzzle #53 solution:
Darren's solution:
"This week's puzzle was quite interesting. I tried everything from 1.Qxh3 ... to 1.Ne1 ... At some point I realized that White must keep Black's Queen pinned, to force a move. And then I saw the solution: 1.Qa8!! ... White's Queen journeys to the end of the Earth to win the game. If Black takes the Queen, White plays 1... Qxa8 2.Rf1# ... If Black moves his Queen elsewhere along the long diagonal, White takes it and mates. And if Black plays 1... Kg1, White plays 2.Qa1# mating because Black's Queen is pinned. 1.Qe4 ... fails because on the capture of the Queen the f5 Rook is pinned, Qd5 and Qc6 because on 1... Kg1 White's Queen cannot reach the first rank, and Qb7 because Black can take the queen with check."

Correct solutions:
Darren, Mark, Andy Q, Joshua, John, Wilson, Katerina - 10 points
James, Jeremy, Jacky - 9 points
Andy Y, Karl, Nathaniel - 1 point
Each wrong try gets a 1 point deduction in case of providing the correct solution

STANDINGS

Darren, Mark, Andy Q, Joshua, John, Wilson, Katerina - 10 points
James, Jeremy, Jacky - 9 points
Andy Y, Karl, Nathaniel - 1 point

Comment: 

Final blow (part 1)