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).

 

[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/

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

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.

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!

A love story from Belgrade

Now this is a story I think I wrote down in my book Weltenfern but I would like to repeat it here, a bit differently, seeing that the WCCC is upcoming.

When I first arrived in Belgrade in 2013, honoring my deceased friend Milan, I was greeted by one special composer, the thriving with life experience and strong spirit Milomir Babić. I was instantly in love, not with the man of course, but with his generous offer - a self-made schnaps for a warm welcome and the difficult STES study.

Milomir Babić

STES World Championship 1997, 2nd place

White wins

 Easier to solve, of course, is the following more recent study.

Milomir Babić

Euxinus Pontus 2010, 1st honorable Mention

White wins

I will leave both for the readers to figure out. Well, not really, the solution to the first study will be posted in the comments.

Two masterpieces by Árpád Rusz

Sometimes studies are simply brillant! Two of those simply brillant ones are to be found on Árpád Rusz's blog:

http://ruszchessstudies.blogspot.com/2016/06/study-89.html
http://ruszchessstudies.blogspot.com/2016/06/study-93.html

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!

Five!

The five knight promotions in a pawn endgame are finally done!

First to have a published study was Darius Knight (!) of the United Kingdom. He may or may not be related to the table tennis professional of the same name, our inquiry was replied to with "Good guess! I play table tennis."

 Darius Knight

chessstar.com, 3 November 2014

White wins

A few hours later, Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen followed with his own knight promotion task study.

Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen

chessstar.com, 3 November 2014

White wins

A wonderful achievement by both composers, many thanks for this expression of beauty, of spirit!

The 7th ARVES Jenever tourney

Yochanan Afek, the famous IM and studies expert from the Netherlands, invites to the 7th ARVES Jenever Tourney in the memory of the Swiss composer Samuel "Sam" Isenegger (2.xi.1899 - 15.xi.1964), about whom can be learnt a bit on the German language Wikipedia page. The announcement of the tourney as well as several others can be found at the website of the Swiss chess problem federation who hosts the WCCC 2014. Yours Truly likes to present two more studies of his own, one of which surely fits the theme and the other debatably also fulfills it.



Siegfried Hornecker
Europa Rochade, 03/2007, 4th honorable mention
Draw

1.b6! Sc5+ 2.Kb5 Kd4 3.b4, and:
- 3.-Sd7 4.Kc6 Se5+ 5.Kc7 Tf8 6.b7 Tf7+ 7.Kc8! Sc6 8.b5 Sa7+ 9.Kb8 S:b5 10.Ka8 Sc7+ 11.Ka7! Se6 12.Ka8 Sc7+ 13.Ka7 Sd5 14.Ka8! with positional draw; or:
- 3.-Sa4!! 4.K:a4 Kc4 5.a6! R:b6 6.b5! Rb8! 7.a7 Ra8 8.b6 Kc5 9.Ka5 Kc6 10.Ka6 Rh8 11.b7 Rh4! 12.b8S+! with positional draw
The interesting battle between the pawns and pieces received the fourth honorable mention in the tourney that I think was only open to German composers.



Siegfried Hornecker
Problem Paradise, April-June 2007
White wins

1.h8Q B:h8 2.b8Q Bd4 3.Q:b6 B:b6 4.d8S Bd4 5.S:c6 Bg7 6.e8S wins
Promotion to queen on b8 and h8, promotion to knight on d8 and e8. It is however arguable if this fits the Jenever theme.