Circle SneK condition - Christmas 2014

In fairy chess, various conditions are introduced each year. Some of them attract the interest of the composers, some stay as curiosities.
The Bulgarian composer Diyan Kostadinov likes to invent new conditions (KoBul Kings, SneK Chess) and recently has announced a tourney for Christmas 2014 with the new condition Circle Snek.

Circle Snek : When a Queen is captured, a Rook of the same side becomes a Queen. When a Rook is captured, a Bishop of the same side becomes a Rook. When a Bishop is captured, a Knight of the same side becomes a Bishop. When a Knight is captured, a Queen of the same side becomes a Knight. Only one piece may change its type after a capture. In case of option – the capturing side chooses which piece will be transformed. The capture and the change of type is a single move. If this full move results in a selfcheck - the capture is forbidden. The capture of a pawn is normal. The capture is normal also in the case when there is no piece on the board which might be transformed. Castling with Royal piece is not allowed.

You will find the announcement of the 2nd KoBulChess Thematic Tourney (Christmas Tourney 2014) here : http://kobulchess.com/en/tournaments/announcements/676-kobulchess-2nd-tt-christmas-tourney-2014.html

Theme: All type problems (#/=, H#/H=, S#/S=, HS#/HS= etc.) in 2-4 moves with the fairy condition Circle SneK. Other fairy pieces and conditions are not allowed. Royal pieces can be used of course.

The deadline is 20-Dec-2014.

Wishing you happy holidays, I present an original miniature with the Circle SneK condition, designed in a way to be easily solved. My computer (using WinChloe v3.31) could not see the solution instantly and spent 4 hours and 12 minutes to finish.

Problem_289 Manolas Emmanuel (GRE) original

Ks3r2/8/8/k5b1/8/7b/7P/8 (2 + 5) h#5, Circle SneK

Select inside the brackets to see the solution [1.Bd7 h4 2.Kb6 hxg5(Bb8) 3.Kc7 g6 4.Kd8 g7 5.Bc7 gxf8=Q(Rd7)#].

Since the moves are only 5, the wPh2 must start with a double step and give mate when it reaches the 8th row and be promoted. (Theme Excelsior). So, the bBh3 must make the first half-move (move B1), (and surely prepare the blocking of bK). The wP will possibly capture one or two black pieces while marching to promotion and it will mate the bK when he is blocked in the eighth row. The bK needs 3 moves to reach the eighth row. The remaining black half-move is needed to complete the block. I believe that some solvers do not really need to see the hidden solution!