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MatPlus.Net Forum General Babson Task: New!!!!
 
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(1) Posted by Zalmen Kornin [Monday, Dec 9, 2019 05:04]; edited by Zalmen Kornin [19-12-09]

Babson Task: New!!!!


This week brought a highly impressive double surprise: Two new Babsons appeared simultaneously, and one of them is a complete 4/4 Babson Task, presenting for the first time ever type QQ-RB-BS-SR (featuring therefore also a cycle of underpromotions.)
quoting from the initial page in berlinthema site: "Even Babson expert Peter Hoffmann himself had thought a new 4/4 type impossible.
A little miracle happened here in time for the Christmas season. :-)"


Peter Hoffmann
"100 Years: Babson Task in the Orthodox Directmate"

(= 15+9 )
#4

Solution, analysis and comments in page 109 of the Babson book online, available in PDF here http://berlinthema.de/
With this brand new realization, a new chapter of the book by Peter Hoffmann (& Erik Zierke) starts. It's the first 4/4 since 2010 - therefore the first in this second decade of the century. And of the second century of the Babson Task itself!

Scrolling back to page 108, we find - also for the first time ever - type RB-BQ-SR. It's a 3/4 Babson (that however features also a QQ variation - enjoyable too, of course...). As for Pierre Drumare in 1965, an appropriate key was not at reach, so the Problem starts with the black thematic Pawn arriving to the first horizontal: it's a mate in 3 and a half with black to complete his move, so to say.

Both newest Babsons evolved from a scheme presented by PH himself in 1986, in an Echo 4/4 BT published in "Die Schwalbe" (page 37 of the PDF). The metamorphosis came after more than three decades! (And this post could also be titled "The Babson Task: from Hoffmann to Hoffmann"... :)
 
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(2) Posted by James Malcom [Monday, Dec 9, 2019 06:11]

I am awestruck! What wonderful news! I'll opt not to kill the messenger THIS time, :).

What I like best about this one is how it doesn't have the 3 black pawns on the last rank to suffocate the new Black bishop as has been used in so many of the cycles. The bishop and rook have a nice areal freedom that is so exquisite, just like Yarosh's Diagram Of The Century!

It took me less then a minute to pinpoint motivations for Black bishop and rook promotion.
 
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(3) Posted by James Malcom [Monday, Dec 9, 2019 06:11]; edited by James Malcom [19-12-09]

BLANK
 
 
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(4) Posted by Miodrag Mladenović [Monday, Dec 9, 2019 07:20]

Zalmen wrote:

 QUOTE 
... 4/4 Babson Task, presenting for the first time ever type QQ-RB-BS-SR ...


By the definition Babson task is only QQ-RR-BB-SS. So this combination QQ-RB-BS-SR is not Babson task at all.
 
   
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(5) Posted by James Malcom [Monday, Dec 9, 2019 14:19]

While that is true, Miodrag, it is the best possbile name for the other possbile promotion cycles.

Also, I’ve shared the new Babson on Puzzling Stack Exchange: https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/91857/the-newest-cycle
 
   
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(6) Posted by Jan Hein Verduin [Tuesday, Dec 10, 2019 18:50]

Meindert Niemeijer used to call this an inadequate Babson. Though I feel inadequate does not do justice to the amazing work for instance Peter Hoffmann has done in this field.
 
   
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(7) Posted by Olaf Jenkner [Tuesday, Dec 10, 2019 19:28]

The foreword of the above mentioned book writes:

Babson Task: All four different promotions of the same black pawn on the same field are fol-lowed each by the corresponding promotion of the same white pawn on the same field. In a broader sense, each assignment of the four black with the four white promotions is allowed.
 
   
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(8) Posted by Joose Norri [Wednesday, Dec 11, 2019 13:17]; edited by Joose Norri [19-12-12]

While all of Hoffmann's problems are admirable, I would not call anything except full correspondence a Babson. For the reason is this, and I am not the first to make the point: it is not very difficult to motivate a knight promotion. Bishop and rook promotions are difficult, and that is exactly the reason why the many greats, whose problems are cited in Hoffmann's and Zierke's book linked above to, didn't quite achieve it.

Now then, if the promotions are not paired but in a cycle or paired in another way, as there?
 
 
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(9) Posted by Rosie Fay [Wednesday, Dec 11, 2019 17:28]

"Two new Babsons appeared simultaneously, and one of them is a complete 4/4 Babson Task"

And the other? If it isn't a complete 4/4 Babson Task, it doesn't do the Babson Task, so it doesn't qualify. Perhaps instead of saying "two new Babsons", say "a new Babson and a new 3/4 Babson"?

"the first 4/4 since 2010 - therefore the first in this second decade of the century"

By what reckoning is 2019 not in the same decade as 2010? Whatever it is, when do the twenties start? I prefer the simple straightforward approach -- 2019 will close the current decade, then the twenties will start in 2020.
 
 
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(10) Posted by seetharaman kalyan [Wednesday, Dec 11, 2019 19:59]

A decade starts with 1 and ends with 10. 1 to 9 is not decade, just nine years.
 
   
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(11) Posted by Zalmen Kornin [Tuesday, Dec 31, 2019 10:40]; edited by Zalmen Kornin [19-12-31]

Faithfull, or just attentive, readers of the Babson-Task online book already realized that a "Fassung" (this German term suggests - say- more than a simple version (quote) "with lighter position and option key" of the newest 4/4 Babson appeared still in current December (last update in the 12th day).

Peter Hoffmann
"100 years: Babson Task in the Orthodox Directmate"
12/2019
(= 16+6 )
#4

And yet another possibility is pointed out by PH in the same page: with subtraction of two units and two shifts, a new version appears (therefore also published) with twenty units.

Thanks for the comments in this thread. Miodrag (and others): Well, Babson's, "Idea", "Theme"... ?! But every single of the types (listed in the end of the PDF) is unquestionably a task - some of the 3/4 being as demanding - or even more in some cases - for the composer as the popular 4/4 Echo Babson (Task or Babson-Task) itself.

*** Today is the last day of the 2010s - not of the decade 2011-20, as pointed out by seetharaman, but tomorrow the "Twenties" will really start, so in a way You're right, Rosie. There's a dual interpretation...
 
   
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(12) Posted by Olaf Jenkner [Tuesday, Dec 31, 2019 17:33]

(= 15+5 )

This is an example of the lighter version, but as Peter noted "the key lottery" only gives 1. Bf7:Qg6 or 1. Bg5:Qh6 .
 
   
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(13) Posted by James Malcom [Tuesday, Dec 31, 2019 20:38]

20 pieces is amazing in it's own right though for a cyclic Babson. It's as light as the two lightest known normal Babsons.

I wonder though, if promoted pieces were utilized, could a normal #4 Babson be done with less than 20 pieces?
 
   
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(14) Posted by Sarah Hornecker [Sunday, May 28, 2023 17:42]

(= 15+7 )

Werner Keym, Die Schwalbe 2023. Mate in 4

Usually I wouldn't show this while the solution isn't published yet, but Frederic Friedel wrote about it on ChessBase already, so...
https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-everest-of-chess-problems

The solution is not 1.S:h6? d1S! but...
https://en.chessbase.com/Portals/all/thumbs/110/110277%20(3).jpeg
 
 
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MatPlus.Net Forum General Babson Task: New!!!!