Anybody here like to solve chess compositions?
Even though I’m not terrible good at *them… yet anyway. It seems that anytime I post anything related to chess compositions, nobody seems to care.
I think chess compositions, even if I don’t solve them, develop my critical thinking skills by forcing me to visualize the board in much more detail. I think it does help my game, although not really sure how much, since playing fast games, usually about g/10 to g/15 minutes, doesn’t really afford me the time to assimilate a position much outside of grazing for a handful of candidate moves and assimilating the position from there.
Post in this thread if you like to solve, or even create, chess compositions. Chess compositions are certainly more popular in Europe, but the chess culture there is considerable different than in the USA.
*I mean the really hard ones that people create to confound even the stoutest chess player.
That’s pretty easy. Click on “quote” to see the spoiler. (You don’t have to actually go through with posting a reply.)
[size=5]White wins with 1.Ne5 and 2.Nd3 mate. Black wins with 1…Nf3 and 2…g1=Q and 3…Qg3, stopping all mates and having plenty of material left, except that if white ever moves the knight, black interjects …Ne5 and then continues the sequence.[/size]
Yasser Seirawan wrote a nice step-by-step analysis of this Korol’kov study some years ago. There are not many pieces to remember, and there are many beautiful points. It’s good for ambitious young players (talented Class D and higher).
For bright beginners and bright experts, the Saavedra position is a fun position to analyze together. (I generally tell them that Q vs. R is a difficult win, but they can assume it’s a win unless Black can do something tricky immediately after White queens…)
“Why is 1.c7 the only winning try?”
“Why is 1.c7 Rd6+ the only move that keeps the game alive?”
…etc. - the Socratic method works and is not too hard for advanced beginners.
(After Black’s fifth move, if White is stumped…) “How many legal moves does White have?”
Two other very nice studies for beginners to masters-who-haven’t-seen-it-before:
youtube.com/watch?v=upQ4RKHMQGg (of course - another staple of beginners’ books) Both Réti and others have put twists on the “Réti manuever” theme: see for example the sixth diagram in this Pal Benko article (Deutschösterreichische Tages-Zeitung, 11.09.1921)
And this Troitsky study is not quite as famous as Réti’s minimalist masterpiece, but also very nice.
John Nunn’s Endgame Challenge has 250 amazing studies. Many many hours of pleasure, such a deal. Roycroft’s The Chess Endgame Study (a/k/a Test Tube Chess) is also wonderful.
Here’s a retrograde analysis problem I first saw many years ago. In the diagram, the question mark represents an unspecified pawn or piece. It could be either White or Black. The problem is to determine which pawn or piece and of which color makes the position legal. The solution is unique.
[size=5]Can’t be Black queen or rook (check on h8).
Can’t be White pawn, as White had eight pawns before White’s last move (took me a minute to figure that out).
Can’t be the original Black bishop (e7 & g7 haven’t moved). Could it be promoted?
Black has made at least four captures (b7xa6, f7xe6xd5xc4). Before White’s last move, White had two of eight first-rank pieces remaining. Question mark could be one of those two…
White just captured a piece on d8 with the former f-pawn. Total pawn captures by White: fxexdxcxd. Assuming Black’s knights are not promoted (i am agnostic on that point), five pieces and possibly one pawn were available for capture. Make that four pieces (*): the Bf8 could not have been one of those pieces, and Black’s h-pawn is the only pawn unaccounted for. But could Black’s h-pawn have promoted via h3xg2 (for example) and then made itself available for capture by White’s f-pawn?
If question mark is a pawn, it could only be the Black h-pawn (the f7 pawn is on c4).
Black knight c8 could have entered via b6; no problems with Black Na1, either.
The captured piece on d8 could not have been queen or rook (because of Kh8).
Nor could it have been the B that started on c8 (duh) so we’ve eliminated non-promoted bishops as a possibility for the mystery piece on d8.
[size=5]White’s last move must have been pawn at c7 captures a Black piece at d8 promoting to a rook. But what piece did the pawn capture?
Not a queen or rook because White would have been in check and there is no legal move leading to that position.
Not an unpromoted bishop because Black’s bishop never left f8.
Therefore it was a promoted knight (or possibly a promoted bishop).
This means that Black made at least 5 pawn captures, all on light squares: b7xa6; f7xe6xd5xc4; h3xg2.
All the White and Black pawns are accounted for, so the piece/pawn at h4 must be an unpromoted White or Black piece.
It can’t be a Black queen or rook because White would be in check. It can’t be a Black bishop because Black’s dark squared bishop never left f8. It can’t be a Black knight because both knights are on the board. Therefore it’s a White piece.
Black’s 5 pawn captures, all on light squares, must have been: queen, rook, light squared bishop, and two knights.
Therefore, the piece on h4 is White’s dark squared bishop.
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A great book on compositions is John Roycroft’s, “Test Tube Chess.” It explains many of the terms used and includes examples of the best compostions. Nice starting point for research.
Nice analysis. You correctly identified the missing piece/pawn. You omitted one part of the justification, perhaps because you thought it was obvious. Quote this reply for details.
[size=5]The White pawn on g3 might have started at f2 and captured on g3. If so, Black’s original h-pawn need not have made a capture on g2. It could have made a capture on a Black square, then marched down the g-file and promoted before the White pawn on f2 hypothetically captured on g3. How can this possibility be ruled out?[/size]
[size=5]If the pawn on f2 captured on g3 then White’s pawns must have made five captures: f2xg3; g2xf3xe4xd5xc6. However, there were only four Black pieces available to be captured: the queen, two rooks, and the light squared bishop. The two knights are still on the board, and the dark squared bishop must have been captured at f8.
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