A little chess experiment...

by Andrew

I have composed a couple of problems to help you test your decision making and creative thinking capacities in chess. To give myself the best chance of avoiding people hating me following this exercise, I will advise you to take a very close look at the initial position before you make your first move. Good luck!

                                  Position 1: White to play, mate in 20 moves or less

If you were able to solve this, well done. Your solution may resemble somewhat one of the following lines:

If you weren't able to solve it, was it too long? Too hard? Too boring?

Okay, I understand; try this one instead.

Position 2: White to play, mate in 1

Yes, I have given you the same position--only with a different stipulation. Well, I did say 20 moves or less.

Probably you have found the solution by now, but let us consider for the moment how this position could have arisen. What was Black's last move? For instance, the queen could not have moved last as it already would have been giving check; similarly for the light-squared bishop and d7, and for the e- and g- pawns if they had been on e6 and g6 respectively. The d6 pawn could not have moved on the last turn given the light-squared bishop has somehow made it out already. And no black piece could have moved from a square that with White to move is currently occupied by a white piece.

(By the way, this position is possible: We can assume that prior to this White had played either b6 or c6, and Black had been oscillating with knight or light-squared bishop.)

So, a close inspection reveals that, in fact Black's only possible move prior to this position was  0...g7-g5, upon which, in accordance with the en passant rule, we are allowed to play the move 1.hxg6 checkmate.

Of course it was a bit of a trick puzzle, and perhaps a few readers/solvers dislike me right now for feeling I have wasted their time, but I think it teaches an important principle: that it can be very hard to see what you are not looking for. Maybe you began by seeing the number 20 and expecting the problem to be a very long one, thereby neglecting to appraise the initial position with much scrutiny or lateral thinking. I reckon if I had presented the first problem as "mate in 1" it would have been a very different story. Our expectations and assumptions inform our judgments and the way we view the world all the time without us realising it.

To be creative and heighten your ability to see different possibilities in chess it is important to be willing to identify and question what you think you know, to be open to receiving new information, and not to cast judgment before judgment is due. This, I believe, is the sort of perspective one should try to adopt if one wants to develop and maintain a free-thinking and creative mind, for chess and for life.

I hope, dear reader, that I have not perturbed too severely your faith in my trustworthiness and that you will come back to read my future posts. Next time I will try not to be quite so mean. :)

More fun with pins

by Andrew

This time the theme is answering a checkmate (or rather an almost-checkmate) with a checkmate. The first three are pretty simple, while the last has many variations and may require a bit of effort (but hopefully it is worth it!).

 

White mates in 2

 

White mates in 2

 

White mates in 2

 

White mates within 6 moves

 

 

 

 

Solutions

 

 

 

 

Fun with pins

by Andrew

Here are a couple of puzzles I composed based on the pin.

Pinning Around

 Black to play, mate in 5

 

Pins and Needles

 

 White to play, help mate in 13. "Turn the man standing on his head into the main who has stood on his head for too long."

Solutions below.



 

 

FIGJAM in January 2015

The four of us will be playing in the two big national opens of Oceania in January 2015.

Andrew, Junta, Moulthun: Australian Open in Castle Hill, NSW, January 2nd-11th.

First prize of $8000, a record in Australian chess! Perhaps it will also be one of the strongest Australian Opens ever, with 13 GMs, 7 IMs and 2 WGMs already registered!

Registered entries

The playing venue is the Castle Hill RSL Lyceum - picture from Western Sydney Academy of Sport gallery here

Fedja: New Zealand Open in Devonport, Auckland, January 1st-9th.

Although a continuation of the Queenstown tradition from 2006, 2009 and 2012 was not seen, playing in New Zealand is always an enjoyable experience, and Devonport looks like a beautiful seaside resort. There are already 4 GMs, 3 IMs and 1 WGM registered.

Registered entries

The playing venue is the New Zealand National Chess Centre - picture from official site

The Queen in her Glory

by Andrew

I have compiled three puzzles which I hope will provide some aesthetic pleasure to the solver; they are all to do with the queen and its unique abilities.

The first is one I composed and is pretty easy (but fun, I think):

White to play and win

1.Qa1+ Kh7 (1...Qg7 2.Qxg7+ Kxg7 3.dxc6 +-) 2.Qb1+ Kh8 (2... Kg7 3.Qg1+ (or 3.Qg6+) +-) 3.Qb2+ Kh7 4.Qc2+ Kh8 5.Qc3+ Kh7 6.Qd3+ Kh8 7.Qd4+ Kh7 8.Qe4+ Kh8 9.Qe5+ Kh7 10.Qf5+ Kh8 11.Qf6+ Kh7 12.Qg6+ Qxg6 13.hxg6+ Kxg6 14.dxc6 Kf7 15.cxb7 +-

The next I found in a 100-year-old (literally) hand-me-down book called Art of Chess and is labelled in there as an "Old Classic"... who knows just how old it is?

White to play, mate in 14.

1.Qe4+ Qb7 2.Qa4+ Kb8 3.Qf4+ Ka8 (3...Kc8 4.Qf8#) 4.Qf8+ Qb8 5.Qf3+ Qb7 6.Qa3+ Kb8 7.Qg3+ Ka8 8.Qxg8+ Qb8 9.Qg2+ Qb7 10.Qxa2+ Kb8 11.Qh2+ Ka8 12.Qh8+ Qb8 13.Qa1+ Kb7 14.Qa6#

And finally a shorter one (though not easier) by Sam Loyd. 

White mates in 4

1.Qa8 g2 (1...d6 2.Qa1 Kxe2 3.Qf1+ Kd2 4.Qd1#) 2.Qg8 d6 3.Qd5 (Zugzwang) Kxc2 (3...Kxe2 4.Qxg2#) 4.Qa2#

The Unexpected - Part 2

by Andrew

This week I am looking at one reason in particular for why certain moves have the power to surprise.

I think most of the time when a move is unexpected - apart from those times when the player is unfamiliar with an idea, or the move is just a blunder - it is because it would ordinarily be a bad move, but something about that particular case makes it not so.

We might normally expect a move to be bad for instance because it loses material, because it jeopardises king safety, or because it doesn't appear on the surface to serve any real purpose. I am going to show some examples of moves that would not only seem bad ordinarily, but actually downright absurd.

Warning: These are quite difficult.


The Quiet

White to play and win - Wotawa 1955

1.Rd2!! Rxd2 (1...e1=Q 2.Rb2+) 2.Rh1+ Rd1 3.Re1! Rxe1 4.e7 Rd1 5.e8=Q e1=Q 6.Qg6+ leading to mate.

The Cunning

White mates in 4 moves - Ernst 1935

1.Ng2! hxg2 2.Rg3! hxg3 3.Bg1! gxh2 Bxh2#

The Heroic

This last example comes from a game I had recently. I was black against Chris Wallis in the Ballarat Begonia Open. The solution should be relatively easy to find given it was played in a game, but apt nonetheless.

White to play and win - C. Wallis vs. A. Brown 2014

1.Qf6! Qa1+ 2.Ke2! Rb2+ 3.Ke3!! +-

For a beautiful rendition of heroism in chess, Sam Loyd style, see this post.

The Unexpected

by Andrew

I'm afraid I must start by bringing into contention a well-known cliche: that for greater wisdom, or grasp of reality, or success in some area, one must "expect the unexpected". It is fairly easy to recognise (not that many people would have thought of it consciously) that in order for us to survive we need expectations. Or more precisely, we need the constants or "unchangeables" (such as rock = hard) or highly probably things (such as fall = pain) that make expectations possible. If we could not ordinarily expect that when we wake up tomorrow we will still be in the same bed, in the same house, and have the same box of cereal sitting in the cupboard, for instance, the world would be unintelligible. Now consider the concept of the unexpected. For an example, if I were to expect the unexpected, it may be that I expect that my bookshelf is going to turn into a glass of orange juice. Merely keeping such an expectation in my psyche could be quite burdensome, aside from the other issues it may cause (e.g., need to buy a new bookshelf ... or alternatively the need to sell that and all other bookshelves immediately lest they suffer a similar fate). Not to belabour the point, we must expect the expected; if we couldn't do that we would be constantly on a collision course with reality. 

However, often in life we discover that in order to learn we must extend the borders of our expectations - hence "expect the unexpected" (...when not taken too literally...). This is due to the vast number of low-chance occurrences human beings encounter just about every day, in whatever area of life. These things help us to learn and grow in all kinds of ways. Ironic though it may seem, unexpected things actually happen all the time.

19-year-old Canberra tennis player Nick Kyrgios beating World No.1 Rafael Nadal 

(Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/5557668-3x2-700x467.jpg)

Talking of a similar phenomenon my favourite psychologist Nathaniel Branden once said, with respect to learning and personal development: "Don't deny or disown what you see or experience merely because you can't explain it, justify it, or fit it into some familiar frame-of-reference. Allow a large space in your psyche to accommodate ambiguity and uncertainty. Don't invent explanations prematurely just so you can tell yourself you have the universe all tied up in one neat package. Keep your eyes open, keep observing, and be confident that sooner or later the truth will appear to you."

Right, you say, so where does chess come into it? 

In chess we are constantly being reminded of the possibility of surprise, and therefore the needs to learn and to check our premises. Very often one well-placed pawn will make a crucial difference to the position - or even a poorly placed one. As well as this, I believe one of the tasks of a chess player is to think "outside the box" of what is already known them, and to forever keep searching for more possibilities. I am confident that there are great many possibilities there for us, waiting to be unearthed, in chess and in pretty much everything else. 

In the NSW Open in June I was on the less fortunate side of one of these unexpected chess occurrences - where things were not quite as they seemed, though perhaps the reader will show more of an open mind than I did upon encountering the game position.

Melkumyan - Brown, Black to play

With very little time left I decided that rather than beat around the bush with a move such as 55...Kh5, I would force my opponent to decide what to do, by playing the threatening but perfectly safe looking 55...Rf1. As soon as I played it I realised I'd made a horrible mistake; and sure enough, my GM opponent realised this as well. Can you see how the game finished?

Rather than defend d1 or resort to a perpetual via Rg7+ my opponent played the strange looking 56.Kg2. Right, well, there's no backing out now: 56...d1=Q 57.Rg7+ and after double, triple, and quadruple checking that 57...Kh6 (or h5 or h4) 58.Rh7+ Kg5 will not in fact end in perpetual check but with 59.h4 checkmate I decided it was time to admit defeat. 

A study-like finish

For top players, the need to be aware of possibilities that are out of the ordinary is just as or perhaps more important. One player who does this very well is the young Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport. While at 18 years of age he is ranked inside the top 50 in the world, his play differs from many of his rivals in the amount of creativity he brings to the game, evident from his unusual but highly successful opening repertoire, his impressive tactical ability, his hairstyle, and so forth. Recently one of Richard's games featured a prime example of what I am talking about.

Rapport - Idani, Reykjavik 2014

Black has just played the seemingly innocuous 41...Nf6. Rapport replied 42.Qxf6+!! Kxf6 43.Ne8#

While there are numerous examples to convey the theme of surprise in chess - in fact virtually all good puzzles have some element of surprise to them - I have chosen this study to conclude because of the "Wow!" moment I remember getting from solving it, at seeing what's it's like when all the pieces are working to their full potential.

White to play and win - Kubbel 1922

1.Nc6! Kxc6 2.Bf6 Kd5 3.d3!! a2 4.c4+ Kc5 5.Kb7 a1=Q Be7#

So, should you expect the unexpected? If it means keeping a curious and open mind, I would say yes. If it means somehow losing your grounding in reality, I would say no. If it means dismissing your normal expectations in favour of new ones, well, I suppose it depends on the context...

In any case, I can say for sure that you can expect The Unexpected - Part 2 - next week.


NB: Figjam has some surprise posts coming very soon. Keep watch! :)

Gold Coast Open 2014

by Andrew

The Gold Coast Open took place last weekend for the 22nd time since its inception in 1993. Though numbers were down compared to previous years, the competition featured many strong players at the top, all vying for a shot at the $1500 first prize.

This year's winner was Brodie McClymont, with a score of 5/6. Brodie has become a real icon of Queensland chess in recent years, coming outright or equal first in just about all the QLD tournaments he plays in - even when the field is headed by IMs. This tournament was no exception. Although there were a couple of uncertain moments in his games (most notably against Alexandra Jule and James Morris, as he conceded in his winner's speech) he played at a high level throughout against very strong opposition and was a well-deserved winner. Half a point behind Brodie at the end were a pack of titled players: IM Richard Jones (Wales), IM James Morris (VIC), IM Moulthun Ly (QLD), and FM (IM-elect) Kanan Izzat (Azerbaijan).

Left to right: Brodie McClymont, Graeme Gardiner, Mark Stokes, Charles Zworestine.

As for my own tournament, well, it left a lot to be desired. Most of the time I was playing reasonably well but due to trouble thinking clearly I have had for a while I got low on time in two of my games and made some very costly mistakes. Unfortunately I also had to miss the first round of the tournament as I was stuck at Sydney Airport all Friday due to the power outage there.

Until I get my hands on some of Brodie's games or other notable games to put up, here is one of my better games from the tournament.

Full results can be found here.

Figjam Mid-Year Update

by Andrew

Greetings Readers, 

First of all, I'd like to say sorry about our general inactivity on here. I am going to try to post twice a week starting from next week (aiming for a Tuesday post and a Friday post).

Second of all, I would like to offer my congratulations to two of our contributors, Moulthun Ly and Junta Ikeda, who have been selected to represent Australia in the 2014 World Chess Olympiad in Norway starting the 1st of August! In the Sydney International Open (SIO) at the end of April, Moulthun and Junta both had fantastic performances, with Moulthun winning the tournament outright and registering his first Grand Master norm and Junta narrowly missing a GM norm but placing Equal 2nd and fulfilling the requirements for the International Master title. It will be great to watch how they go in Norway against many of the world's best. Before then however, they, along with two other members of the team, GM David Smerdon and 13-year-old FM Anton Smirnov, will be competing in the Politiken Cup - a strong open tournament in Denmark - as a warm up.

For more info on either of these tournaments, you can click on the links below:

https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014

http://www.ksu.dk/politiken_cup/default.aspx?la=en

Thirdly, the Gold Coast Open is on this weekend. Moulthun, Jonas and I are all participating, with Moulthun currently being the top seed. Last year Moulthun placed Equal First but was unlucky not to win outright, missing a last minute opportunity in his final round game with GM Lubomir Ftacnik:

Ly - Ftacnik GCO 2013

62.g4? (62.Kh7 +- - e.g., 62...Kf7 63.g4 Kf6 (...h5 64.g5) 64.h4 Kf7 65.g5 or 62...h5 63.Kg6 h4 64.g4) Kg8 63.h3 Kh8 64.h4 Kg8 Draw agreed.

Hopefully there will be better news to report this time around - Moulthun is certainly the favourite to win this year's event. Either way, the tournament should be hard fought and enjoyable to play in as it has been in previous years.

Fourthly, Magnus Carlsen just won both the World Rapid and the World Blitz Championships, meaning he is now World Champion in all three of the major time divisions of chess - a triple crown, if you will.

Lastly, White to play and win. Highlightable solution below. Enjoy!

White to play and win - A. Wotawa 1960

1.f8=Q Rxf8 2.gxh5+ Kf7 3.Rh8!! (3.Rxf8+ Kxf8 4. Rf1+ Kg8 5.h6 (5.Ke7 h6 =) gxh6 6.Ke7 h5 7.Rg1+ Kh8 8.Kf7 h6 =) Rxh8 4.Rf1+ Kg8 5.h6! gxh6 6.Ke7 with mate next move.

Doeberl Cup & Sydney International Open 2014

Australia's two biggest open tournaments of 2014 are now over, and it was a good fortnight for FIGJAM, with Moulthun winning the Sydney International Open and achieving his first GM norm, and Junta achieving his IM title by scoring his third (and fourth) IM norm and surpassing 2400. Andrew had a great Doeberl but couldn't maintain the same level of play for the SIO, while Fedja wasn't in his best form with fatigue being a major factor, going into these events right after the KL Open.

Doeberl Cup final crosstable
Sydney International Open final crosstable

Although we've been writing as rarely as ever this year, Andrew plans to write a couple of posts every week, starting June. See you again soon!

Doeberl Cup winner GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu with guest Garry Kasparov

Our own shot with the 13th World Champion

Sydney International Open, =2nd-6th place: from left, Mu Ke (CHN), GM van Wely (NED),
Junta, GM Vajda (ROU) and GM Nisipeanu (GER) with GM Rogers and IA Zworestine

Moulthun giving his winner's speech

The Most Beautiful Game I've Ever... Failed to Win

by Andrew

"Simplicity, carried to an an extreme, becomes elegance." - Jon Franklin

"You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try." - Homer Simpson

This game comes from the recent Commonwealth Chess Championship and was the anticlimax of my tournament, and possibly my chess career. I don't remember ever feeling so devastated after a game before, and not because I'd missed an opportunity for a good result, or a norm, or some kind of recognition (though Kasparov had actually looked at my game at the start of the round).

It was because I had destroyed something I considered to be really beautiful, but more than that it felt like I had missed the opportunity I'd been waiting for for many years. By this I mean to say, one cannot create a masterpiece if one's opponent allows the 4-move checkmate; your opponent's decisions of course play a vital role in the process, and hence, games like the following are quite rare. 

I see the first part of this game as a kind of humorous testament to the advice every beginner is given when they first learn to play. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

1.e4 e5 (D)

"Move a central pawn forward two spaces."

2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf6 c3 (D)  

"Develop knights before bishops."

4.Qe2?! Bc5 5.f4 0-0 (D) 

"Castle early."

6.Nf3 d5! -+ (D)

"Push your other central pawn so you can
develop your last minor piece."

7.exd5 Bg4! (D)

"Now it is time to develop your last minor piece.
(Never mind the knight for now.)"

8.dxc6 (8.fxe5 Nxe5) e4 (D)

"Advance your central pawns to open lines for your pieces."

9.d4 (9.cxb7 exf3 10.gxf3 (10.bxa8 Qxa8 -+) Re8 -+) exf3 10.gxf3 Re8 (D) 

"Last but not least, bring your rook to the open file."

Perhaps chess is simpler than I thought? 11.Be3 Bxf3! (D) 

"...now that development is complete
it is time to sacrifice a bishop..."

12.Qxf3 Bxd4 (D)

"...and another one..."

So, now things aren't quite so 'simple', but it turns out that these sacrifices are completely sound, as 13.cxd4 is losing after ...Qxd4. E.g. 14.Kf2 Rxe3 15.Qxe3 Ng4+; 14.0-0 Rxe3 15.Qf2 Ng4; 14.cxb7 Rxe3+ 15.Be2 Rae8 16.Qf2 (Qg2 Qxb2) Ng4 17.Qg2 Rxe2+ 18.Qxe2 Qf2+ (D)

My opponent saw these lines and decided instead to opt for 13.Be2 (D)

The game continued 13...Rxe3 14.Qg2 Nh5 15.cxb7 Qh4+?! (D) my first real error of the game. Black is significantly better after the safe 15...Rb8 as Nxf4 cannot be stopped (e.g. 16.Rf1 Qh4+), but naively I decided against it for fear of compromising the game's beauty. Following this the game went rapidly downhill.

Here was the high-point in the game, at least in terms of beauty, where White could have played the remarkable 16.Qf2!! whereupon ...Rxe2 does not win the house as it appears but in fact after the calmest of moves, 17.Kd1!... (D)

...even being a piece up, even with all of White's major pieces on the edge of the board, and even with 3 pieces attacking the White queen, Black is hopelessly lost. Like Frodo at the Fires of Mount Doom, the b7-pawn will ultimately win the day for the White army.  

Instead the game continued 16.Kd2 (D)

After which I played Rd8 (Rae8 -+) 17.Bxh5 Qxf4 (Bb6 is still winning) 18.Kc2 Qf5+ 19.Kc1 Rxc3? (D) (Still aiming for the beauty prize, of which there was not. Qxh5 was fine.)

20.bxc3 Be3+ 21.Nd2 Qd3?? (D) (The end is nigh. Rxd2 would have still given me chances)

Then came 22.Bxf7, and to give you an idea of how rapidly things went downhill, on Move 29 the position looked like this:

Final Position

Consequently I had to resign to avoid further embarrassment.

Getting over this game was pretty hard, but it's something that needed to happen for me to be able to start playing well again. Kind of like one of those movies where the main character dies but saves the world at the same time. I found I was doing things like this nearly every game, going for beauty or misguided creativity over objectivity. 

The rest of the CCC was nothing special - in fact I dropped 35 rating points. But the whole experience was very important for me in a variety of ways. Since this experience I have found that the more objective I've been, both with chess and other parts of life, the more enjoyment I have got out of it. 

And of course my chess has started to improve, but that is a story for later.

I will leave you with some photos from my trip. Enjoy!