Sunday, December 29, 2013

10th International Solving Contest

The 10th International Solving Contest, for 2014, is announced

http://www.wfcc.ch/competitions/solving/isc14inv/

Saturday, December 28, 2013

2013 is almost past

The year 2013 has given me joy with international distinctions, as similarly happened to various Greek composers and I am happy for them when they achieve better awards than me!
There were also some cooperations, not yet published, which gave me great satisfaction with their beautiful results.

This same year I was disappointed when I tried to organize regular gatherings for friends of chess compositions in a place, for exchanging news and ideas.
There was no significant interest or maybe there was not enough publicity for this matter.
If someone is learning about this just now and is interested, he can contact me.

In the next year 2014 I suppose that things will become better.
There is a new move by Nikos Mendrinos, The Cup of Greece, solving contests happening simultaneously in many cities of Greece. I hope that this will give the needed push to increase of the number of the Chess Composition friends.

Let 2014 be a good year for everyone!
Manolas Emmanuel

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Season's greetings

Wishes for nice holidays for all!

Holiday problems you may find at the following:

A story with mate in various amounts of moves (relevant with which piece is stricken by the bullet)...
http://en.chessbase.com/post/chebase-puzzles-a-dangerous-game-171013

Christmas problems by very advanced composers...
http://kobulchess.com/en/news/7-2011-07-31-17-09-09/421-christmas-puzzles-2013.html


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

A prized series composition

In "series" compositions, one side makes moves alone, alters the position in some fashion, and when its moves are completed, then the other side mates or stalemates, accordingly with the stipulation.

Today we will see a ser-s=198, that is a series inverse stalemate in 198 moves. The white plays 198 moves alone and in the last one the black plays and is forced to stalemate the wK. This composition was awarded with 1st prize in a ChessCafe.com tourney and is a world record in its category. (See the presentation with a Sherlock-Holmes-like story in page 5 of the document : http://www.chesscafe.com/text/puzzling54.pdf)
Four black Pawns have been promoted to bQ, bR, bR, bR. The wK has difficulty in moving around the chessboard with the assistance of the wB, but the wK is obstructive and the wB makes large rounds.
During the writing of the solution, we omit the moves which are easily deducted.

The composer, Arno Tüngler, is very succesful with very long compositions.

Problem-748
Arno Tüngler
1st Prize, ChessCafe.com 2013 Puzzler's Cup

4B3/2p1p3/2PqPr2/2r2Ps1/2Pr3b/p2PKp2/1r3s2/q5rk (7 + 15)
ser-s=198

1.Bd7 6.Bc2 8.Kc3 9.Bb3 11.Ka4 22.Bb5 26.Kc8 35.Bd7 37.Ke8 48.Bf7 50.Kg7 51.Bg6 53.Kh5 64.Bg4 65.Kxh4 66.Kh5 77.Bg6 79.Kg7 80.Bf7 82.Ke8 93.Bd7 95.Kc8 104.Bb5 108.Ka4 119.Bb3 121.Kc3 122.Bc2 125.Kxf2 128.Kc3 129.Bb3 131.Ka4 142.Bb5 146.Kc8 155.Bd7 157.Ke8 168.Bf7 170.Kg7 171.Bg6 173.Kh5 184.Bg4 185.Kxg5 187.Kh3 198.Bg2+ Rgxg2/Rbxg2/fxg2=