Tuesday, December 25, 2018

ChessBase Christmas Study 2018

My friend Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen has accompanied one of his 2017 studies with a nice Christmas story to make the ChessBase Christmas Study for this year.

Now I am not entirely neutral, as I mediated the contact, but personally I recommend reading it here:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/a-christmas-study

The readers named Eva Nemcova should notice the dedication is to a woman of that name in Steffen's country Denmark. So it's not the Czech basketball star.

Monday, December 24, 2018

[Short story] A special night

(Note that I also have published this on Reddit today. It was originally uploaded an published on my Dropbox on 8 January 2018 but probably nobody read it there.)


The following story is inspired by true events.

-----

Andrew sat down. He was an old man, proud of the life he had lived. There were certainly a few regrets, but all in all his both grandchildren visiting him tonight were proof enough that this fateful night he would tell them about really had its good.

He started talking about his youth, how he went to school, about his parents who had died a few years ago, prior to him telling the story, but after his grandchildren were born. They screamed a short "greatgramma" and "greatgramps" but then continued to listen. It was a time of political tensions, and when an assassination took place on the Balkans, in a town called Sarajevo, the world turned to war. It was in the first year of war that Andrew was conscripted.

Andrew spared a lot of details about the conscription, they would not matter. What mattered was that a few weeks after the conscription, winter had come over the battlefield. In the cold of night, they were fighting to the last drop of blood, a war that lost its humanity. The enemy was a countless horde of man, but so was their own. They ran out of ammunition, the front line provided no warmth during the fight and it raged until deeply in the night. Finally the ammunition was out. They made it look like they still had ammo, but they had used too much for the week. Of course more was on the way, but it would only arrive the next morning. It was cold and dark and the enemy was everywhere. Some time went by but then the enemy started to notice there was only sporadic fire coming from them, and eventually no fire came at all. Two courageous Germans finally went out of their holes, coming closer. They had the guns in their hand. They came to Andrew, and he was sure this was the end.

The children heard the story for the first time, their shocked expression was clearly visible. "But then", Andrew continued, "a miracle happened." One of the soldiers pointed the gun down at Andrew, ready to shoot. The other one reached out his hand and gestured Andrew to follow. They would take him as prisoner, he was sure. Would they torture him now? They brought him to a tent, he had to sit down. It was rather warm inside, a small fire was burning. Then one of the Germans took a wooden box and opened it. They offered it to Andrew. Was that tobacco? The other guy reached him a bracket of chocolate. Was that poison? Reluctantly Andrew let it melt in his mouth, but he refused to smoke.

He didn't understand what was the reason for the Germans' behavior when they showed him their clock. He only understood when they started to sing, and in his own language he fell into the chorus: "Sleep in Heavely Peace. Sleep in Heavenly Peace."
Just like it was today when he told his grandchildren the story, it was that time to celebrate something bigger than all the differences of mankind. It was something that could stop a war. It was Christmas.

Saturday, December 15, 2018

There is nothing new under the sun

Discovering a masterful battle of the rook against queen, Martin Minski and I gladly sent it to a tourney in Azerbaijan.

Siegfried Hornecker & Martin Minski
Dedicated to Klaus Rubin
ŞAHMAT BƏSTƏÇİLİYİ–15 YUBİLEY YARIŞI, 2018
Special Prize [final award]
White to move and win

1.Sf7+ Ke6 2.Ke8 g2 3.Sf7 Rh8+ 4.S:f8 g1Q
 5.Re4+! Kd6 6.Rc4! Ke6 7.Sf7 Qg2 8.Ra4! Qe2 9.Rb4! Qe3 10.Rb2!! (zugzwang) 10.-f5 11.Rg2! f4 12.Rg6 mate


A great study, very well worthy of the second prize given, if there was not, as found by Sergiy Didukh... (PS, 30 December 2018: but it received the Special Prize in the final award!)

Peter Krug
The Problemist, March 2013
White to move and win

1.Sf7! Be7+ 2.R:e7 Q:g4 3.Bh3! Q:h3
4.Rc7! Qg2 5.Ra7! Qf1 6.Ra2! (zugzwang) 6.-g5 7.Rh2 Qb1 8.Rf2+ Kg6 9.Se5+ Kh5 10.Rh2 mate
With this, our study, which is superior to Krug's setting, has only the bare minimum of existential right, but sadly no justification for any award. What a horrible coincidence!

But why was the dedication to Klaus Rubin?

Siegfried Hornecker
White to move and win (incorrect)
Original publication

Not: 1.S:c7? Q:b5+! 2.S:b5 B:d5 3.Sf7+ Kf4!! (3.-K:e6? 4.Sd4 mate!) 4.e7 Bc6+ 5.Kd8 B:b5 6.Sd6 Bc6 7.Sc4 Kf5! 8.Sb6 Ke6 draws

1.Sf7+! Kf4 2.Rb4+! Kf5 3.S:c7 B:d5 4.S:d5 K:e6 5.Se3! (or 5.Se7) Qf3 6.Rb6+ Qc6+ 7.R:c6 mate
Symbiosis of checkmate in try and solution. 

But Klaus Rubin, on testing, claimed that 2.Rc5! also wins. Upon further examination, I found the variation 2.-Qg1! 3.Rc4+ Kf5 4.S:c7 B:d5 5.S:d5 K:e6 6.Se7!, and the study now of the Azerbaijan tourney is reached, after 7.Sf7 there.

So seeing this idea, Martin Minski developed a great foreplay, leading up to the duel of rook against queen. Sadly, now it turned out to be anticipated.

"There is nothing new under the sun", the proverb says. But also not anymore on the chessboard?


PS, 30 December 2018: The original study for SB15 has received a Special Prize now. The text above is amended to tell this.

Friday, December 7, 2018

Selected Studies #01 - Stalemate Avoidance

I will start a new column here in which I offer studies to solve from time to time. You can post your solution idea in the comments.

We start with a study which is by Martin Minski and me.

This is taken from the new book of the late Mark Dvoretzky and Oleg Pervakov, page 150: "Etiud i partija ediny". Biblioteka FSHR. Moscow 2018. ISBN 978-5-907077-03-4


Martin Minski & Siegfried Hornecker
"Studies for practical players" tourney 2017, commendation
White to move and win

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Israel, Arabia and the neverending chess controversy

With many thanks to a German chess official whose deep knowledge, this time in form of the following link, was shared with me quickly after sending him a nightly e-mail, I can present the following question to readers:
Why is Russia allowed, despite Ukrainians not feeling good going there, to host a World Chess Championship, but Saudi Arabia is denied the same for excluding Israeli players?

Original German link:
https://perlenvombodensee.wordpress.com/2018/12/03/schiffeversenken-im-schwarzen-meer-schnellschach-in-russland/

Google Translate link:
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fperlenvombodensee.wordpress.com%2F2018%2F12%2F03%2Fschiffeversenken-im-schwarzen-meer-schnellschach-in-russland%2F
(Note that "World Championship" is wrongly translated as "World Cup")

[German] Israel, Arabien und die nimmerendende Schach-Kontroverse

Dank einem mit fundiertem Wissen aufwartenden Schachfunktionär, der auf meine nächtliche E-Mail zum Thema den folgenden Link geschickt hat, kann ich die Frage an Leser weitergeben:
Warum darf Russland die Schachweltmeisterschaft ausrichten, obwohl dort Ukrainer sehr ungern hingehen werden, jedoch Saudi-Arabien nicht, da es Israelis die Einreise verbietet?

https://perlenvombodensee.wordpress.com/2018/12/03/schiffeversenken-im-schwarzen-meer-schnellschach-in-russland/