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First we show you Svitlana Demchenko solving our puzzles live, online. Further below, we have all the solutions in text and diagrams.
WIM Svitlana Demchenko is a Ukrainian-born Canadian chess player. She was a multiple-time Canadian Girls Champion and a two-time North American Girls Champion in different age categories. Svitlana has been a member of the Canadian Women’s Olympiad Team since 2018, and has represented Canada at the Women’s World Cup.
Svitlana is a well-known author in ChessBase, having published many dozens of chess lessons online (which you can still listen to), as well as FritzTrainers on chess openings. Here is one on the tricky yet deceptive Scotch Game!
You were asked to place the two kings and two white rooks on the board so that White to play could checkmate in one move – in four different ways.
This seemingly easy yet deceptive puzzle, by Karl Fabel, has only one solution:
White mates with Kd2, Ke2, Kf2 – or 0-0!
H. August, O.Brennert, T.R. Dawson, N. Hoeg, V. Onitiu, Skakbladet 1924
It is clear that in the position on the left Black must have executed the last move, and it had to be king from b4 to a3. But the king could not have moved to an empty square, because then White has no previous move. So the black king had to have captured on a3, and the only white piece that could have got there legally would be a knight. So the position clearly arose from the position shown on the right.
Niels Hoeg, Skakbladet 1924
The question was: how could the position on the left arise? What was the last move played? Clearly it must have been a white move, since bBb2-c1 would be illegal. So White must have moved his bishop from a2 to b1. But then what was the black move before that? The only possibility was a black knight moving from c3-b1, and White capturing it to reach the given position.
Were you able to solve the above problems?
The final chess problem, by Filip S. Bondarenko, was intended to bring a smile to your face:
White can not only win – he can deliver mate. But he requires 21 moves to do so! And this is how it is done: 1.Qd8+ Rd6 2.Qb7+ Rcc6 3.Qa5+ R4c5 4.Qb3+ Rdc4 5.Qd2+ Red4 6.Qf3+ Ree4 7.Qg5+ e5 8.Qf7+ Re6 9.Qd8+ Rcd6 10.Qb7+ Rcc6 11.Qa5+ R4c5 12.Qb3+ Rdc4 13.Qd2+ Red4 14.Qf3+ e4 15.Qg5+ Re5 16.Qf7+ Rde6 17.Qd8+ Rcd6 18.Qb7+ Rcc6 19.Qa5+ R4c5 20.Qb3+ Rdc4 21.Qd2#. You can play the move on the diagram above and enjoy humiliating the engine. Isn't it the longest forced mate you have ever solved? The ideas problem composers come up with!
