Chess Problem #4

The recently concluded 37th World Chess Solving Tournament (24^th September-25^th September, 2013) in Batumi, Georgia was an affair to remember. The event held under the aegis of WFCC* was directed by

Axel Steinbrink, Germany. 56 Solvers from 19 countries participated in the competition. Poland was first, followed by Germany and Serbia in this prestigious event.

Boris Tummes, Arno Zude, MichaelPfannkuche (Germany); Alexander Mista, Piotr Murdzia, Kacper Piorun (Poland); Bojan Vuckovic, Marjan Kovacevic, Borislav Gadjanski (Serbia)

Among the solvers Piotr Murdzia (Poland) scored the highest individual result, 85.75 followed by Arno Zude (Germany) 84.5 and Kacper Piorun (Poland) 83 points out of 90.

Arno Zude, Piotr Murdzia and Kacper Piorun

The following problem is taken from the first round (Two-mover Section)

White to play and mate in two moves

(Set yourself a time limit of 7 minutes)

Solution: When you look at the position, you find that the only piece not participating in the attack is the bishop on b5.

If only the c4 pawn can move ahead, there will be a discovered check followed by mate. First, the queen has to clear the way for the pawn.

Black in turn would block c5 with the rook or the queen.

Worse, he could also bring the knight to e5 to occupy c4 if the pawn moves.

So the White queen should remain on the 5^th rank to prevent all these counter moves.

Now there is a second difficulty.

Black would play 1…Rd2, allowing 2…Kxc2 or 2… Kxe4(if White plays 2. R(e2)x d2+)

Hence, it’s necessary to guard e4, neutralizing the defense with 1…Rd2.

Thus the only move is 1.Qd5.

At first sight this appears innocuous.

Then you realize, Black cannot block c5 advance with 1…Rc5 or 1…Ne5

as the d4 pawn captures either piece with a discovered check by the queen.

Bravo!

(Without the knight on g6 White has a dual with 1. Qc6 and 1. Qd5)

Milan Vukcevich,

Third Prize,

US Problem Bulletin, 1995

Milan Vukcevich

More on this late composer is here

Credits:

1) The file photo of Milan Vukcevich is taken from the Wikipedia

2)The images of the 37^th World Chess Solving Tournament

are taken from WFCC

Thanks, Ms Julia Vysotska!