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The compositions presented below are in no order, but are the top three puzzles submitted! We also had a special prize (the fourth puzzle listed!) for the best story to make their composition, which was quite inspiring to read.
The solutions to the puzzles are provided at the end of the article. There are hints and description of the solutions present in the text following the diagrams – where you know you can move the pieces! And remember: in helpmates Black has the first move (with one exception as specified below).
This position has four twins which are harmoniously connected. We see, in the diagrammed position, that the two white bishops will be the checkmating pieces, but understanding where is interesting to solve! Here is the solution:
a) Diagram
b) Move a4 to f3
c) Move g4 to c4
d) Move a4 to g3
The black king gets mated on four different squares. All four are Boden's mates and model mates too. And there is a fabulous cycle of the white moves in the pattern AB-BC-CD-DA when each white move is represented as an alphabet! It’s also interesting to not why it must be Bd4 or Rd4 for the black moves when the black king is on e5 and e4 respectively.
In the starting position, we see two pinned bishops, which are most likely going to be the checkmating piece for the Boden’s mate. Visualising the checkmating position is especially tough since the none of the squares in the black king’s field is covered! Beautifully connected solutions! We see White unpinning one of the bishops with his first move and Black doing the same to unpin the other white bishop, along with guarding one of the squares for the mates. And then of course, the white bishops move around and give the criss-cross mate!
A miniature with two solutions, each containing the Boden’s mate, was a pleasure to receive! We see that the white bishop is pinned in place, but in each of the two solutions, it is unpinned in a different way.
This composition gets the special prize, not just because of the content, but also the cook-stopping that took place in making this work! This was by far the best composition submitted by a beginner who has never made any other chess puzzles. On top of it, his story behind making the composition was indeed quite inspiring. We will tell it to you in a separate article – which will hopefully inspire you to compose little chess puzzles yourself.
All prize-winners will be contacted separately for their respective prizes. Hope you enjoyed the ChessBase Composition contest, and we welcome any and all feedback pertaining to it!
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