Level
3-Bishop
Chess Diagram
[Event "Puzzle #52"][Date "2009.01.02"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "2K5/8/2N2Q2/1k6/8/1N6/2P5/8 w - - 0 1"]
Happy New Year 2009 everyone!
Our lives are very busy. Every day at school, work or while working for ourselves we face challenges and are presented with options to choose from in order to solve those challenges. Chess gives us a fun way of practicing and improving our skills of finding the right option/ solution in any given situation. Ion Andrew Dowman, a chess enthusiast from Christchurch, New Zealand, is fascinated by Knights and their unusual powers and limitations. His present puzzle combines a pair of Knights with a Queen, pawn and King for a challenging task:
White to move and mate in 2
The amount of fire power is overwhelming, but time (just 2 moves) and efficiency (don't shoot down a bird with a cannon) are the challenges you have to overcome. Good luck! Total available points for this puzzle is 10. The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #53.
Puzzle #51 solution:
Last week precise calculation was needed to put together a string of 7 moves, leaving Black without a chance. Joanne noticed:
... It was especially hard to think of moves that would actually be useful since the Rook is pinned...
and needed a hint to go on. The truth is she identified the first challenge correctly, but stopped there. Obviously White needs to unpin the Rook first. Once that part is solved, the rest is pretty simple: use deflection to break the defensive connection between "Bd5" and "f7". After the connection is broken, White mates easily.
[Event "Puzzle #51"][Date "2008.12.26"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "q5k1/5p2/7Q/r2b1B2/8/8/r2R3K/8 w - - 0 1"]1.Bh7+ Kh8 2.Bc2+ {Unpins the rook} 2...Kg8 3.Rg2+ {Deflects Bd5 and protects Kh2} 3...Bxg2 4.Bh7+ {And now the execution} 4...Kh8 5.Bg6+ Kg8 6.Qh7+ Kf8 7.Qxf7#
Correct solutions:
John, Joshua, Mark, Wilson, James - 15 points Joanne - 1 point
Andy Q - 15 points for puzzle #50
Standings:
Joshua - 170 points
John - 164 points
Andy Q - 136 points
Jeremy - 133 points
Mark - 131 points
Wilson - 101 points
Joanne - 96 points
Jacky - 87 points
Karl - 83 points
Darren - 76 point
James - 66 points
Nathaniel - 65 points
Katerina - 63 points
Our lives are very busy. Every day at school, work or while working for ourselves we face challenges and are presented with options to choose from in order to solve those challenges. Chess gives us a fun way of practicing and improving our skills of finding the right option/ solution in any given situation. Ion Andrew Dowman, a chess enthusiast from Christchurch, New Zealand, is fascinated by Knights and their unusual powers and limitations. His present puzzle combines a pair of Knights with a Queen, pawn and King for a challenging task:
White to move and mate in 2
The amount of fire power is overwhelming, but time (just 2 moves) and efficiency (don't shoot down a bird with a cannon) are the challenges you have to overcome. Good luck! Total available points for this puzzle is 10. The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #53.
Puzzle #51 solution:
Last week precise calculation was needed to put together a string of 7 moves, leaving Black without a chance. Joanne noticed:
... It was especially hard to think of moves that would actually be useful since the Rook is pinned...
and needed a hint to go on. The truth is she identified the first challenge correctly, but stopped there. Obviously White needs to unpin the Rook first. Once that part is solved, the rest is pretty simple: use deflection to break the defensive connection between "Bd5" and "f7". After the connection is broken, White mates easily.
[Event "Puzzle #51"][Date "2008.12.26"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "q5k1/5p2/7Q/r2b1B2/8/8/r2R3K/8 w - - 0 1"]1.Bh7+ Kh8 2.Bc2+ {Unpins the rook} 2...Kg8 3.Rg2+ {Deflects Bd5 and protects Kh2} 3...Bxg2 4.Bh7+ {And now the execution} 4...Kh8 5.Bg6+ Kg8 6.Qh7+ Kf8 7.Qxf7#
Correct solutions:
John, Joshua, Mark, Wilson, James - 15 points Joanne - 1 point
Andy Q - 15 points for puzzle #50
Standings:
Joshua - 170 points
John - 164 points
Andy Q - 136 points
Jeremy - 133 points
Mark - 131 points
Wilson - 101 points
Joanne - 96 points
Jacky - 87 points
Karl - 83 points
Darren - 76 point
James - 66 points
Nathaniel - 65 points
Katerina - 63 points
Mate in 2