The 57th World Congress of Chess Composition took place in Berne, Switzerland from 23rd August to 30th August 2014. There were both composing and solving contests in problems and endgame studies. There were as many as 104 players in the Solving Competition. It was a star-studded field with some of the greatest names in chess participating, Marjan Kovasevic, David Gurgenidze, Kenan Valikhanov, Yochanan Afek, John Roycroft, John Nunn and Harold van der Heijden, to mention a few.
The 1st Place was taken by Anatoly Mukoseev (Russia) followed by Bojan Vuckovic (Serbia) who came 2nd and Kacper Piorun (Poland) who came 3rd.
The following is a beautiful two-mover from the solving contest. Give it a try.
White to play and mate in two moves
Zinovy Birnov, 4th prize, All-Unions Championship, USSR 1952
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Dear readers,
There was an error in the previous diagram leading to mate in one!
Sorry for the faux pas.
The corrected position is now open for solving.
The finale is elegant.
Fresh attempts are welcome.