Problems, problems, problems
By
Steve Giddins
What with a collapsing economy, Wayne Rooney's dodgy ankle, and the Hobson's
Choice that is an impending general election, a casual observer might think
that we Brits have more than enough problems as it is. But we are gluttons for
punishment. Here amongst the British chess community, we cannot get enough of
problems, especially of the twomove, threemove, helpmate and other varieties.
Over the weekend of 9-12 April, the British Chess Problem Society was proud
to host the latest annual European Chess Solving Championship, which took place
at Sunningdale, just a couple of miles from the world-famous golf course. Some
55 competitors, representing 13 countries, came together for a weekend devoted
to chess problems, and in particular, the solving thereof. It is the first time
in 20 years that such a major international problem solving event has been held
in Britain, and it was possible largely thanks to the sponsorship of Winton
Capital Management, who have supported British solving most generously over
the past few years.
The competition involves something akin to a set of exams. The competitors
sit in a room, armed only with a chess set and what Hercules Poirot called their
"little grey cells", and have to work out the solutions to a whole
series of chess problems, the difficulty of which varies from the hard to the
veritably fiendish. Six time-limited rounds test the solvers' ability to deal
with twomovers, three-movers, moremovers, endgame studies, helpmates and
selfmates. Points are awarded for finding not only the key moves, but also all
of the relevant variations.
The first round is twomovers, three of which have to be solved in 20 minutes.
If you think that should be easy, try them yourself (all solutions at the end
of this report):
E H Baird, Pictorial World, 1892
White to play – Mate in two
W Bruch, Stratagems , 2000
White to play – Mate in two
I Suvorov, 1st place, Russian Team Champs, 1992
White to play – Mate in two
After that gentle warm-up, round two required the solvers to crack three three-movers,
in one hour. My favourite amongst these was the following, which has more variations
than Kasparov's database:
C J R Sammelius - 1st Pr Memorial P Koetscheid, 1964
White to play – Mate in three
If you find the above problem a little tough to solve, let me offer you a hint:
the white knight on d6 really ought to have its picture in the dictionary, under
"workhorse"!
Round three is the longest round of all, 90 minutes in which to solve three
endgame studies. The following battle of the heavy pieces was the most difficult
of the selection:
M Gromov, 5th Pr Schakhmatnaya Nedelya, 2003
White to play and win
After that battering, the competitors were given the remainder of Saturday
off for good behaviour. At this halfway point in the event, Great Britain A
were sweeping all before them. Their team of Nunn, Mestel, McNab and Friedgood
led the overall standings, by a healthy 12.5 points from Poland, whilst John
Nunn led the individual race, three points clear of the reigning world champion,
Piotr Murdzia of Poland. By the time the contest reconvened on Sunday morning,
the spirits of many competitors had been dampened by the news of the Polish
air crash, and Sunday's solving began with a minute's silence in memory of those
killed.
Round four was helpmates, one of those genres which always seem to puzzle the
OTB player. In a helpmate, Black moves first, and cooperates in helping White
to mate him in the number of moves specified. Most modern helpmates have more
than one intended solution; the next example has no fewer than four, all of
which had to be found to secure full marks:
M & R Tomasevic, 7th pl. tt Liga Problemista, 1984
Black to play – Helpmate in two, four solutions
Round five is moremovers, i.e. direct mates in four or more moves. I was most
impressed by the following:
A Pankratiev – 1st pr L'Echiqier Belge, 1983
White to play – Mate in six
Once again, you may find this pretty difficult to solve, so here is a clue:
it is no coincidence that Black has four pieces that can go to e4!
The final round is selfmates, in which White must force a reluctant Black to
mate the white king. These are probably the type of problem that causes most
difficulty to solvers, especially those coming from an OTB background. The last
of the selfmates used at Sunningdale, a selfmate in six by Gamnitzer, defeated
all but two of the 55 solvers, so I will not ask you to solve it here. However,
it can be found below, with solution, as can all of the problems used at Sunningdale,
and I would urge all readers to take a look at it, as it is quite brilliant.
As an easier example of a selfmate, here is the first of those used at Sunningdale:
V Smirnov – 3rd HM, Stratagems, 1999
White to play – Selfmate in two
When all the papers had been marked, and the final scores totted up, it was
a double home triumph. Despite a spirited fightback by the Polish team, Great
Britain A had hung onto a narrow lead, and won with 204.5 points, to the Poles'
202, with Serbia a further ten points back in third place. In the individual
contest, ChessBase's favourite boffin, Dr John Nunn, won the gold medal with
80.5, ahead of Poland's Piotr Murdzia on 77 and Eddy van Beers of Belgium on
76.25. The junior championship went to Murdzia's Polish teammate Kacper Pioron,
who also occupied fourth place overall, and looks like a star of the future.
At the bottom of this report, you will find a file containing all of the problems
used in the event, with full solutions. Even (in fact, especially) if you are
not a chess problem fan, I would urge you to take a look through the problems.
Some of them are quite beautiful, and, I can assure you, they are a lot more
interesting than looking for a TN on move 37 of the Marshall or Petroff!
The winning Great Britain A team: David Friedgood, Jonathan Mestel, John Nunn
and Colin McNab. Between them, the four are holders of three OTB grandmaster
titles, three doctorates in mathematics, two solving GM titles, three world
solving championships, four OTB British championships, three OTB Scottish championships,
three OTB South African Championships, and well in excess of 20 British solving
championships – don't you just hate some people?
Only second, for once, but still smiling. With five world titles (inter
alia) to his name, Piotr Murdzia of Poland is just about the most successful
solver since the invention of... solving!
Double Grandmaster (OTB and Solving) Jonathan Mestel, casting a sceptical-looking
eye over the solution of the second endgame study.
Three of the winning Great Britain team (Jonathan Mestel had to leave early)
receive their trophy and medals. Joining them, second from left, is Uri Avner,
President of the Permanent Commission for Chess Composition, which regulates
the problem and study world, organises world championships, awards titles for
composing and solving, etc.
Despite Saturday's distressing plane crash news, the youthful Polish team fought
back hard on the second day, and almost stole the gold medals. (l to r): Kacper
Piorun, Piotr Murdzia and Piotr Gorski (not pictured: Bogusz Piliczewski).
The bronze medals went to the powerful Serbian team: (l to r): Milan
Velimirovic, Vladimir Pidinic, Marjan Kovacevic and Bojan Vukcovic.
"My cups runneth over". John Nunn, with the individual trophy and
gold medal.
Dr Pavel Kamenik, of the Czech Republic, was the Tournament Director. As well
as selecting the problems for the event, invigilating the solving, recording
the results, etc. he had the unenviable task of marking each of the 55 handwritten
sets of solutions from each round – a total of 330 sheets over two days!
Pavel was assisted as second marker by Brian Stephenson of England, seen here
fortifying himself with some essential vitamin B intake.
Christopher Jones is one of the world's most prolific composers of helpmates.
As well as assisting with the controlling of the event, he also composed the
second problem used in the helpmate round. Can you solve it?
John Rice is one of the doyens of the problem world, a prolific and highly-acclaimed
composer. He also edits The Problemist, the official magazine of the
BCPS.
Paul Valois of England was the principal organiser of the whole event. In his
spare time, he is an indefatigable researcher in the nation's newspaper archives,
from which he has unearthed literally thousands of forgotten chess problems.
And finally, your correspondent, who really enjoys problems and problem solving
competitions.
