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MatPlus.Net Forum General Story of a lonely man
 
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(1) Posted by Neal Turner [Sunday, Oct 27, 2019 12:58]

Story of a lonely man


He realised there were two types of people in the world - chess people and non-chess people.
He knew which he preferred.
Some time later he saw that there were two more types of people in the world - players and problemists.
Obviously it was the problemists he was drawn to.
But then he found that problemists came in two categories - solvers and composers.
Those solvers, going on about their ratings, reminded him of the chess players he'd left behind earlier, the composers were much more interesting.
But you won't be surprised to find that he soon became aware that composition was divided into help play and antagonistic play - oh no!
Confronted by a thousand Zilahis, he abandoned helpmates and was quite content until he was faced with the split between direct mates and selfmates.
Those direct mate guys were certainly very clever with their patterns and cycles but where was the chess?
It was while worshipping at the altar of the Mighty Gamnitzer that he heard a voice in his head whispering 'royal grasshopper'.
He joined a mysterious group of cognoscenti, the Societatem Locustae, whose mission was to delve into the secrets of the royal grasshopper.
At last he had found his niche! It was very small, with few collaborators but he was happy.
But then a wizard appeared from the east promoting a strange cult known as SAT...

Looking out of the window at the passers-by, he smiled to himself knowing that there were two types of people in the world - those who made selfmates with SAT and royal grasshoppers and those who didn't.
 
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(2) Posted by Michael McDowell [Sunday, Oct 27, 2019 13:17]

The boy in the bubble...
 
 
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(3) Posted by James Malcom [Sunday, Oct 27, 2019 13:58]

Where the series-mover and reflexmate populations go on this man's world?


Nice story though! ;D
 
   
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(4) Posted by Marcos Roland [Sunday, Oct 27, 2019 14:35]

As a composer of helpmates, I think I share somehow your feelings about the thousands of Zilahis. I think I've composed just two of them, the first back in 1991, and I felt that I've had enough of it. Anyway, nice text!
 
 
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(5) Posted by seetharaman kalyan [Sunday, Oct 27, 2019 14:50]

the dichotomy is never ending !
 
 
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(6) Posted by Hauke Reddmann [Sunday, Oct 27, 2019 20:08]

Says you.

H. Reddmann, Problem-Forum 9/2006
(= 11+8 )

1.Se4! (2.Td6) Sxc4/Bxc4/Sdxe4/Scxe4/Rbxd7/Rfxd7 2.Sc3/Bc6/Se3/Be6/Sxb6/Sf6
A combinative 3x2 Zilahi in the orthodox #2. Eat my shorts :-)

Hauke, who would consider doing fairy if it had more monster girl pieces :-)
 
   
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(7) Posted by Michael McDowell [Monday, Oct 28, 2019 14:33]

Is there any reason why a solver should notice a Zilahi in a directmate two-mover (especially when obscured by some mates reoccuring after other defences)? It turns up frequently in two-movers as an incidental feature. Although it has long since become far too common an idea in the helpmate to be of great interest by itself, there is still a clear paradox in the fact that Black can best help White mate by reducing his force.
 
   
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(8) Posted by shankar ram [Tuesday, Oct 29, 2019 07:45]

And where are the retro, retractor and pg guys;-)
 
   
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(9) Posted by Neal Turner [Tuesday, Oct 29, 2019 09:45]

This is just one man's path through the labyrinth that is Problem Chess.
There are many other stories to be told.
 
 
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(10) Posted by Rosie Fay [Tuesday, Oct 29, 2019 19:06]

I know how you feel.

I was long ago attracted to chess.

But it put me off, to have to memorise a vast complicated opening-book, knowing that I'd always be beaten by those who could memorise more than me, so I was drawn away from playing and towards problems.

But the directmates I saw were too complicated. They were opaque -- it was not possible to see a step-by-step method which leads to the solution. The selfmates were much the same. So were the helpmates, just without branches in the solution line.

Then I saw retros. Finally a sort of chess problem which you could solve by finding out numerous facts and making inferences from them, which lead to the answer.

But as the years went on, fewer and fewer retros like that were getting published, and more and more proof-games. I dislike proof-games because they, too, are opaque.

So I, too, find myself in a very small niche.

What's more, the world of problems is increasingly getting overrun by problems involving fairy units and problems involving fairy conditions. I could squander some of my time in trying to understand some of these, but what would be the point? For any fairy condition, the problems that use it are yet another small niche. The problem world has fractured into numerous small niches.
 
 
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(11) Posted by Hauke Reddmann [Tuesday, Oct 29, 2019 20:04]

@Michael: I know that my problem is not convincing in clearness,
I just wanted to emphasize that it might be a good idea to
look over ghetto borders and steal^W be inspired.

Also, it just gave me a idea: Instead of capturing the white
piece in a Zilahi, black merely interferes the line. (Now let White
interfere too, also against his will, and you have transferred
white line combination into h#, so to say.)
 
   
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(12) Posted by Frank Richter [Tuesday, Oct 29, 2019 21:32]

@Rosie: Very pleasant and understandable post!
 
   
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(13) Posted by Per Olin [Wednesday, Oct 30, 2019 17:43]

Old joke: there are three types of people in the world - people, who can count and people, who can't count...
 
   
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(14) Posted by Sarah Hornecker [Wednesday, Oct 30, 2019 23:09]

There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who count binary and those who don't.
 
   
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(15) Posted by Geoff Foster [Thursday, Oct 31, 2019 03:38]

That reminds me of a joke about the base 8 (octal) number system. Computer programmers always mix up Halloween and Christmas, because Oct 31 = Dec 25.
 
   
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(16) Posted by shankar ram [Monday, Nov 4, 2019 04:06]

...the lonely man was going through the latest issue of Juraj Lörinc's Conflictio(No.19, November 2019).
He came across the following: "The mechanism of 352 was discovered by Aschwanden and Gvozdják (1st-2nd Prize Martin-Žilina 2000-2001), here it is shown using electron lion (i.e. lion based on the alfil-dabbaba rose)".
A Quantum Rose! It's a sign, he thought, and started searching for the new cult's joining formalities...
 
   
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(17) Posted by Hauke Reddmann [Monday, Nov 4, 2019 10:46]

Consider voting for the larger evil - the Kraken is the most
powerful piece on the chessboard. Cthulhu iä fhtagn! :-)
 
 
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MatPlus.Net Forum General Story of a lonely man