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MatPlus.Net Forum Competitions Chess Problems & Studies Discord Composition Tournament #0 #2
 
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(1) Posted by edderiofer [Thursday, Mar 31, 2022 12:00]

Chess Problems & Studies Discord Composition Tournament #0 #2


APRIL FOOL'S, EVERYONE! (It's April 1st in at least one timezone, good enough for me.)

Remember how last year I hosted a chess problem tourney for April Fools on the Chess Problems & Studies Discord (https://discord.com/invite/wHzKhXbugb)? Yeah, we're doing it again this year. Once again, since April Fool's is the time for creativity and jokes, your task is to compose any joke problem! (THIS IS AN INFORMAL TOURNAMENT FOR WHICH THERE IS NO PRIZE.)

1. This tournament is organized and judged by edderiofer.

2. All puzzles will be pitted against each other in a single division and will primarily be judged on humour. (Hey, this is an informal April Fools tournament.)

3. The following conditions apply:

* Entries should consist of the board position, stipulation, and the intended solution. (Also be prepared to explain the joke if I don't get it.)
* The problem must be original and composed by the submitter. Anticipated problems may be disqualified at the organiser's discretion.
* The problem must be sound, in that the intended solution(s) should be the only one(s).

4. There is no maximum on the number of entries per author. Submit as many as you want.

5. Please send all entries via Discord DMs to @edderiofer#0713, or via email to [username]@gmail.com.

6. The submission phase will run until 2022-04-02 everywhere (2022-04-02, 12:00 UTC). After this, there will be a small delay for the purposes of verification, amendments, and judging.

7. All eligible submissions will receive a ranking (even if there are very few submissions). Honourable Mentions may be given to disqualified or late entries. All other disqualified/late entries that are not given an Honourable Mention will not be published.
 
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(2) Posted by edderiofer [Wednesday, Apr 20, 2022 07:46]

Once again, the entries are in. Fourteen entries were received this year, two of which were disqualified and thus given Honourable Mentions.

I regret not hosting more composition tournaments on the Discord server over the last year. Having ADHD makes planning this sort of thing all too easy to procrastinate on or forget about entirely for weeks or months at a time. Which is also my excuse for why these results have taken over two weeks to publish.

As with last year, we start with the HMs in reverse order:

1st Honourable Mention:

Dylan S: (= 7+9 )

White to win.
Solution: 1. Kc1 c2 2. Kxc2 g4 3. f4 g3 4. hxg3 g5 5. f5 g4 6. f6
Comments: Unfortunately this submission was previously published in the Discord server, so it is disqualified on the grounds of not being original. I'm still going to give it an HM though, so it’s not a total *loss* for the composer.

0th Honourable Mention:

Siegfried Hornecker: [no position] [no stipulation]
Solution: [no solution]
Comments: [no comment]

And for the placing entries:

12th place:

DancingKnight: (= 59+1 )

White to win, b) Ka1-->b1.
Solution: a: Mate in 7 - 1. Nb2 Ka2 2. Qd1 Kb1 3. Qfe1 Ka2 4. Qc2 Ka1 5. Qf1 Ka2 6. Nd1+ Ka1 7. Qb2#; b: Mate in 4 - 1. Bb2 Ka2 2. Ba1 Kxa1 3. Nb2+ Kxb2 4. Qb1#
Comments: I can only assume the stipulation is really supposed to be "White to win as quickly as possible". Amazingly, removing any single piece in this position cooks it! It’s a shame the position is slightly illegal for rather subtle reasons, though; while Black has seemingly legal retractions in the form of Ka2/Kb1(x)a1, and White has retractions after each of these, it eventually turns out that White must retract some pawn move. However, there is no way to safely retract the b3-pawn without causing Black’s king to be trapped between a1 and b1 and thus be unable to retract its way back to e8 where it belongs. Still, this is a joke problem composition tournament, so this is a perfectly valid entry.

11th place:

Adrian Storisteanu: (= 6+10 )

Sculpt a h#2 (upside-down queens are Grasshoppers).
Solution: From the given block* we can, guided by the classic recipe,** carve out a totally sound (legal position*** + unique solution) helpmate-in-two masterpiece: Chisel out bGe3, bGc4, bGe4, bGf4, bGd6, bGf6: **** 1.Kc6-d6 Gd3-b3 2.Gc3-c6 Gb3-g3#
*Conveniently already set on the board. (Not necessarily marble.)
** It appears it was not Michelangelo who explained, “It is simple. You just chip away the stone that isn’t David.” Solid piece of advice nonetheless. (Read more here: quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/22/chip-away/.)
*** Both Ks on board, the presumed G promotions all accounted for, black to move.
**** This is the unique set of Gs to remove that leads to a sound h#2 1.1.1.

Comments: Very creative idea! But I feel this is less of a joke and more of an orthodox fairy stipulation. Now, if we could chisel away *parts* of pieces, on the other hand...

10th place:

Dylan S: (= 6+8 )

White to win.
Solution: 1. f7 Ne5 2. f3+ Kg3 3. f8=Q Nd7+ 4. Kxc6 Nxf8 5. cxb5 h4 6. b6 h3 7. b7 h2 8. b8=Q h1=Q 9. Qxf8 Qxf3+ 10. Qxf3+
Comments: Even if you’re bad at studies like I am, I’m sure finding the first move shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s all the other moves that give you trouble. You may find the next problem easier, though...

9th place:

Hauke Reddmann: (= 2+9 )

It is Black to move. Obviously, the wK just dropped off the board. Where?
Solution: g1. Last moves fxe1=S+ Kg2-g1 and so on.
Comments: Anyone can solve this problem even if they don’t know retroanalysis! This submission was received just hours after the submission above; ultimately the fact that the full solution here is present is what edged it to 9th.

8th place:

Siegfried Hornecker: (= 5+3 )

Mate in 1, played in the UK; b) move Qf4-f3.
a) 1.Bg4 mate; b) 1.Nf4 mate. No UK citizen would dare assault Her Majesty The Queen.
Comments: It remains to be seen whether any British chess players will be locked in the Tower of London for their treasonous crimes against Her Majesty. The UK does not currently have a king, so how there can be multiple kings on the board is a mystery. They must be pretenders to the throne.

7th place:

Adrian Storisteanu: (= 4+3 )

Swap two units for a speedy win (-:
Try: swap wPg7↔wBb6, and then play 1.Bg7-f8#.
Solution: sometimes, playing one whole move means just dragging things out. We should swap the pawn with the other bishop, for a position with a win that’s twice as fast: swap wPg7↔bBc8, and then complete the promotion 1⁄2.=S#.
Comments: b) add bPe7. The try and solution are left as an exercise to the reader.

6th place:

Bedrich Formanek: (= 3+6 )

Mate in one, joke.
Solution: White is the well known German player Carl Carls. Black is his good friend Hong-Kong´s player Ed Black. The try 1.c2-c4 mate?? is not possible because Ed glued the Pawn c2 to the board. Solution is 1.e2-e4 mate!! because Carl glued the Queen e5 to the board out of revenge. This is neostrategic content.
Comments: This problem is best solved while riding a rollercoaster (https://xkcd.com/chesscoaster/). (LEGAL DISCLAIMER: I cannot be held responsible for any harm caused by attempting to solve chess problems while riding a rollercoaster. Please exercise caution if doing so.) Also, be careful with the glue, or you might end up gluing your hand to your opponent’s after the game. (LEGAL DISCLAIMER: I cannot be held responsible for any harm caused by attempting to glue pieces to a chessboard. Please exercise caution if doing so.)

5th place:

DancingKnight: (= 5+8 )

ser-s#3 (Motto: Faileddão).
Solution: 1. cxd7 e.p. 2. 0-0 3. d8=K##
Comments: Remember that in a selfmate, it is White to play and get themselves mated. Also remember that in a seriesmover, checking moves may only happen on the last turn. Thus the move order 1.cxd7 e.p. 2.d8=K+?? (3.O-O#) does not work. You may object that White is checkmated on Black’s turn, but this doesn’t matter because Black and White have no way to rescue White from being mated. Note that 3.d8=P+? doesn’t work either because Black has the stunning defense Rxc7!! and White’s king is no longer checkmated!

4th place:

James Malcom: (= 7+11 )

s#2
Solution: 1. f8 (waiting) Q~ 2. (finishes f8=N) Ne6+ dxe6# 1... B~ 2. (finishes f8=Q) Qb4+ Nxb4#
Comments: Delayed promotion of course follows delayed en passant and delayed castling in prior works. How many times have I solved a problem where I wish I could decide on White’s promotion *after* Black made their defence! I don’t immediately recall seeing a problem involving this before, though I’m sure someone will let me know of a predecessor.

3rd place:

DancingKnight: (= 1+7 )

h#5 (Motto: Which one's the Joke?).
Solution: 1. a5 Ke4 2. a4 Kf3 3. a3 Kf2 4. a2 Ke1 5. a1=wN 5. 0-0-0# (with N)
Comments: Castling is often described in part as a rook jumping over the king, but it’s also often said that the knight is the only piece that may jump over other pieces. Evidently this knight has gotten fed up of the rooks trying to upstage its unique ability, and, true to the composer’s name, decides to have a dance with the king to assert dominance!

2nd place:

DancingKnight, Andrew Buchanan, James Quah (Director's note: yes, team submissions were totally allowed): (= 2+8 )

h#2 (Motto: Failadão).
Solution: 1. fxe1=wK a1-a2 2. b2*a1=wN e.p. 0-0-0# (with N)
Comments: Building upon the previous problem as well as that in 5th place, in this helpmate Black and White help each other VERY generously! Only one of the moves here is legal, and the other moves are an illegal pawn promotion, an illegal en passant, and an illegal castling, for a totally illegal Valladão. Thankfully, since Joaquim Valladão Monteiro’s dead, he’s not going to object to this. (LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This is not legal advice. Always consult a lawyer before you decide to do something illegal.)

1st place:

Nukeychess: (= 9+4 )

White to announce a couple of very minor rule changes to the game of chess and mate in one.
Solution: White relaxes the castling rule to allow castling with any king and rook on the same vertical or horizontal line, and also applies the double-jump rule from checkers to castling. Then he plays 1. O-O O-O O-O-O O-O-O O-O#
Comments: I see that last year’s checkers entry inspired another checkers entry this year! The ability for a piece to make multiple moves in a single turn is one that is sadly underutilised by chess players.

---

Hopefully we all had fun and levity creating these problems and reading their solutions. See y'all next year for this. Or sooner, if I can find the energy to run another tourney before that.
 
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MatPlus.Net Forum Competitions Chess Problems & Studies Discord Composition Tournament #0 #2