An idea and its variation

 EG 225 offers to me two ideas and their variations. One is mentioned in the magazine's supplement, the other is one I only knew, as I had tried to make something off of it.

Siegfried Hornecker, Original (omposed 27 October 2004)

White to move and win

The solution 1.d:e8R! Qg8+ 2.Kh3 Q:e8 3.B:f5 Qe7 4.Rd7! Qg7 5.R:g7 wins with the d-pawn advancing if the queen remains on e7 and f7 lacks a proper introduction and is overall ugly, but the basic idea was nice. Nothing ever came of it, however.

 

The next year, this study was composed and published (abridged):

 

Siegfried Hornecker, Schach 12/2005

White to move and win

The first few moves were left out here, as they are just a horrible introduction with captures that should have been left out in the first place. 5.Be8! Rf7! 6.Kg3!! Rf8 7.f7 R:f7 8.d6 Rf8 9.d7 R:e8 10.d:e8R! wins

 

Using this matrix and the previous position's idea, some time around 2020 I arrived at something like this - no trace is left in the database, as I found nothing that works.

 

 

Siegfried Hornecker (modified), around 2020 (reconstruction)

Black to move, White wins

 

Only while writing this blog post, I arrived at the pawn pair e3/e4 to make the matrix work. Removing those, it was intended to be some kind of zugzwang. Black should have no square for the queen on the diagonal, so after 1.-Qf5+ 2.R:f5 mate but at the time I found no working setting, and the one I found now is more ugly than good.

I was surprised to find a similar position on the front page of EG 225, and remembering my idea within a second I arrived at the conclusion that 1.Rf7 must be the key there.

Yochanan Afek & Amatzia Avni, 2nd FRME tt 2020, prize

White to move and win (end of study)

Obviously it was not, they had found a completely different idea than what I sought, and must have found it a few months prior to me trying the similar setting.

Yochanan Afek & Amatzia Avni, 2nd FRME tt 2020, prize

White to move and win

 

The solution runs 1.Bg4+! K:g4 2.Sg6 S:a7 3.R:a7 Kh5 4.Kh3 K:g6 5.Se5+ Kh5 and the diagram above is reached: 6.Sg6!! K:g6 7.h5+ K:h5 8.R:h7 wins, or 6.-Q:g6 7.Ra5+ Qg5 8.h:g5 wins

 

There is nothing new under the sun when I try to compose, and sometimes a masterpiece is just one piece moved to another position away. And getting to that position two years earlier.

 

Congratulations to Yochanan and Amatzia for the incredible finding and the interesting introduction with Anzizielelement (the king leaving h5 first).

 

hhdbvi is published

 Harold van der Heijden's sixth database is published now!

If you did receive a special invitation e-mail because you work for EG or are a friend of Harold, make sure to read the instructions there. Everyone else can order the database for 55 Euro:

https://www.hhdbvi.nl/

 

If you have no previous version of the database, or if you are an endgame studies aficionado/enthusiast, I highly recommend it. But of course I am biased as I write for EG...

Announcement: 8th FIDE World Cup in Composing

https://fide.com/news/464
https://fide.com/calendar/50617

Composers will be surely pleased to know that the used time controls for composing are "Standard". Due to technical limitations, composers will need to self-regulate this to make sure they don't use "Blitz" or "Correspondence" time controls for composing. Or the dreaded "My wife wants me to stop composing but I only need five more minutes" time controls.

[German] Spaß mit Korolkow

Für die Seite https://schachtraining.de/ habe ich für Elias Pfann ein paar Aufgaben kommentiert. Die erste finden Sie hier:
https://schachtraining.de/spass-studien/

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.

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.

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

[GERMAN] Hornecker-Studie bei Huschenbeth

Wie mir gestern Abend Martin Minski mitgeteilt hat, hat Niclas Huschenbeth eine sehr schöne Kleinigkeit von uns in einem seiner Youtube-Videos mit dem Titel "Unglaubliche Studien #12" besprochen. Der Hamburger Großmeister Huschenbeth war zunächst - neben Videos für einen großen Online-Schachservice - für seine Serie "Unglaubliche Züge" bekannt, in der er genialste Züge aus echten Schachpartien präsentiert. Nachdem Martin Minski einen jener Züge gesehen hatte, entstand eine Gemeinschaftsstudie der beiden daraus, die zur Grundlage für Huschenbeths Studien-Anthologievideoserie wurde.

Weitere Links:
Unglaubliche Züge (Playlist)
Unglaubliche Studien (Playlist)
Remarkeble Games and Moments (Playlist, englisch)

Zinar's five knight promotions in the pawn endgame

On the task of five knight promotions in the pawn endgame, Mikhail Zinar now has shown a great study.
http://didok.ru/%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%bd%d0%ba%d1%83%d1%80%d1%81-%d0%b2-%d1%81%d0%be%d1%81%d1%8e%d1%80%d0%b0-120/

You must have JavaScript enabled to see the entries, Zinar's entry is of 14 February 2018. I shall edit this post to reprint it here in a few days.

Jan Timman 65 JT - award

The award of Jan Timman 65 JT is available not only as special supplement for eg but also on ChessBase now, courtesy Yochanan Afek.

Holy man with six letters?

http://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-the-hour-of-the-holy-men

Bishop - in the fifth Study of the Month article!

Study of the Month (on ChessBase)

Readers will be excited about, in cooperation with the WFCC and ChessBase, a new monthly column "Study of the Month" by Yours Truly in which older but interesting studies will be explained in detail.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-the-pawn-is-the-soul-of-the-game

In the first issue, we take a look if a pawn can draw against queen and two pieces. The following columns are planned to appear around the beginning of each month.

Special thanks go to all members of the WFCC subcommitee for studies, especially Yochanan Afek, John Nunn and Martin Minski, as well as Frederic Friedel and Fernando Offermann from ChessBase to enable this project!


EDIT:
This post may serve as repository for the links. As SOTM 1 is linked above, here are the further links. All links open in a new window (tip: set them to open in a new tab in your browser settings instead for better navigation).

Study of the Month 2 - http://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-an-impossible-move
Study of the Month 3 -  http://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-a-knight-a-knight-my-kingdom-for-a-knight

Franjo Vrabec, StrateGems 2013, 2nd prize

For those participating at the 2nd tt of chessproblem.net, the following study will be interesting. It is completely thematic.

Franjo Vrabec

StrateGems 2013, 2nd prize

Win

 

1.Kf2! b6! 2.Ke2! Kd7 3.Kd3 Ke7 4.Ke3 Ke8! 5.Kd4! Kd8! 6.Ke4 Ke8 7.Kf5! Ke7 8.Ke5 a4 9.Kf5! Ke8! 10.Ke4! Kd8 11.Kd4 Ke8 12.Kc3! Kd7 13.Kd3!! Ke7 14.Ke3 Ke8 15.Kd4! Kd8 16.Ke4! Ke8 17.Kf5 wins

 

Dear Franjo, I am sure Grigoriev himself would be proud of you!

A few Youtube videos about endgame studies

Here are a few Youtube videos with lectures of endgame studies. The V. Akobian lectures are aimed at beginners of the game, each around 55 minutes long. Those who will usually read the blog can skip them.

 The other two lectures are more about artistic endgames, where of course Timman stands out as a prolific composer himself. The Jan Timman lecture is around 1:30 hours long. Jen Shahade (pronounced Shuh-uh-dee, not Shuh-hate, as can be seen in her second video) teaches for around 35 minutes each. Enjoy!

(Thanks to Politiken Cup and the St. Louis Chess Club / Scholastic Center for putting the videos online!)

Varuzhan Akobian on Endgame Studies (03.iv.2013)

Varuzhian Akobian on Endgame Studies for Beginners (07.iii.2013)

Jan Timman on Endgame Studies by himself and Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen, lecture at Politiken Cup 2015

Jen "USCF" Shahade on Endgame Studies (27.i.2015)

Jen Shahade on artistic Endgame Studies (30.x.2013)