5 Direct Mate Problems in Chess
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A Combinatorial Game Theoretic Analysis of Chess Endgames
A COMBINATORIAL GAME THEORETIC ANALYSIS OF CHESS ENDGAMES QINGYUN WU, FRANK YU,¨ MICHAEL LANDRY 1. Abstract In this paper, we attempt to analyze Chess endgames using combinatorial game theory. This is a challenge, because much of combinatorial game theory applies only to games under normal play, in which players move according to a set of rules that define the game, and the last player to move wins. A game of Chess ends either in a draw (as in the game above) or when one of the players achieves checkmate. As such, the game of chess does not immediately lend itself to this type of analysis. However, we found that when we redefined certain aspects of chess, there were useful applications of the theory. (Note: We assume the reader has a knowledge of the rules of Chess prior to reading. Also, we will associate Left with white and Right with black). We first look at positions of chess involving only pawns and no kings. We treat these as combinatorial games under normal play, but with the modification that creating a passed pawn is also a win; the assumption is that promoting a pawn will ultimately lead to checkmate. Just using pawns, we have found chess positions that are equal to the games 0, 1, 2, ?, ", #, and Tiny 1. Next, we bring kings onto the chessboard and construct positions that act as game sums of the numbers and infinitesimals we found. The point is that these carefully constructed positions are games of chess played according to the rules of chess that act like sums of combinatorial games under normal play. -
11 Triple Loyd
TTHHEE PPUUZZZZLLIINNGG SSIIDDEE OOFF CCHHEESSSS Jeff Coakley TRIPLE LOYDS: BLACK PIECES number 11 September 22, 2012 The “triple loyd” is a puzzle that appears every few weeks on The Puzzling Side of Chess. It is named after Sam Loyd, the American chess composer who published the prototype in 1866. In this column, we feature positions that include black pieces. A triple loyd is three puzzles in one. In each part, your task is to place the black king on the board.to achieve a certain goal. Triple Loyd 07 w________w áKdwdwdwd] àdwdwdwdw] ßwdwdw$wd] ÞdwdRdwdw] Ýwdwdwdwd] Üdwdwdwdw] Ûwdwdpdwd] Údwdwdwdw] wÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈw Place the black king on the board so that: A. Black is in checkmate. B. Black is in stalemate. C. White has a mate in 1. For triple loyds 1-6 and additional information on Sam Loyd, see columns 1 and 5 in the archives. As you probably noticed from the first puzzle, finding the stalemate (part B) can be easy if Black has any mobile pieces. The black king must be placed to take away their moves. Triple Loyd 08 w________w áwdwdBdwd] àdwdRdwdw] ßwdwdwdwd] Þdwdwdwdw] Ýwdw0Ndwd] ÜdwdPhwdw] ÛwdwGwdwd] Údwdw$wdK] wÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈw Place the black king on the board so that: A. Black is in checkmate. B. Black is in stalemate. C. White has a mate in 1. The next triple loyd sets a record of sorts. It contains thirty-one pieces. Only the black king is missing. Triple Loyd 09 w________w árhbdwdwH] àgpdpdw0w] ßqdp!w0B0] Þ0ndw0PdN] ÝPdw4Pdwd] ÜdRdPdwdP] Ûw)PdwGPd] ÚdwdwIwdR] wÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈw Place the black king on the board so that: A. -
Weltenfern a Commented Selection of Some of My Works Containing 149 Originals
Weltenfern A commented selection of some of my works containing 149 originals by Siegfried Hornecker Dedicated to the memory of Dan Meinking and Milan Velimirovi ć who both encouraged me to write a book! Weltenfern : German for other-worldly , literally distant from the world , describing a person’s attitude In the opinion of the author the perfect state of mind to compose chess problems. - 1 - Index 1 – Weltenfern 2 – Index 3 – Legal Information 4 – Preface 6 – 20 ideas and themes 6 – Chapter One: A first walk in the park 8 – Chapter Two: Schachstrategie 9 – Chapter Three: An anticipated study 11 – Chapter Four: Sleepless nights, or how pain was turned into beauty 13 – Chapter Five: Knightmares 15 – Chapter Six: Saavedra 17 – Chapter Seven: Volpert, Zatulovskaya and an incredible pawn endgame 21 – Chapter Eight: My home is my castle, but I can’t castle 27 – Intermezzo: Orthodox problems 31 – Chapter Nine: Cooperation 35 – Chapter Ten: Flourish, Knightingale 38 – Chapter Eleven: Endgames 42 – Chapter Twelve: MatPlus 53 – Chapter 13: Problem Paradise and NONA 56 – Chapter 14: Knight Rush 62 – Chapter 15: An idea of symmetry and an Indian mystery 67 – Information: Logic and purity of aim (economy of aim) 72 – Chapter 16: Make the piece go away 77 – Chapter 17: Failure of the attack and the romantic chess as we knew it 82 – Chapter 18: Positional draw (what is it, anyway?) 86 – Chapter 19: Battle for the promotion 91 – Chapter 20: Book Ends 93 – Dessert: Heterodox problems 97 – Appendix: The simple things in life 148 – Epilogue 149 – Thanks 150 – Author index 152 – Bibliography 154 – License - 2 - Legal Information Partial reprint only with permission. -
Award -...CHESSPROBLEMS.CA
...CHESSPROBLEMS.CA Contents . ISSUE 14 (JULY 2018) 1 Originals 667 2018 Informal Tourney....... 667 Hors Concours............ 673 2 ChessProblems.ca Bulletin TT6 Award 674 3 Articles 678 Arno T¨ungler:Series-mover Artists: Manfred Rittirsch....... 678 Andreas Thoma:¥ Proca variations with e1 and e3...... 681 Jeff Coakley & Andrey Frolkin: Four Rebuses For The Bulletin 684 Arno T¨ungler:Record Breakers VI. 693 Adrian Storisteanu: Lab Notes........... 695 4 Last Page 699 Pauly's Comet............ 699 Editor: Cornel Pacurar Collaborators: Elke Rehder, . Adrian Storisteanu, Arno T¨ungler Originals: [email protected] Articles: [email protected] Correspondence: [email protected] Rook Endgame III ISSN 2292-8324 [Mixed technique on paper, c Elke Rehder, http://www.elke-rehder.de. Reproduced with permission.] ChessProblems.ca Bulletin IIssue 14I ..... ORIGINALS 2018 Informal Tourney T369 T366 T367 T368 Rom´eoBedoni ChessProblems.ca's annual Informal Tourney V´aclavKotˇeˇsovec V´aclavKotˇeˇsovec V´aclavKotˇeˇsovec S´ebastienLuce is open for series-movers of any type and with ¥ any fairy conditions and pieces. Hors concours mp% compositions (any genre) are also welcome! Send to: [email protected]. |£#% 2018 Judge: Manfred Rittirsch (DEU) p4 2018 Tourney Participants: # 1. Alberto Armeni (ITA) 2. Erich Bartel (DEU) C+ (1+5)ser-h#13 C+ (6+2)ser-!=17 C+ (5+2)ser-!=18 C- (1+16)ser-=67 3. Rom´eoBedoni (FRA) No white king Madrasi Madrasi Frankfurt Chess 4. Geoff Foster (AUS) p| p my = Grasshopper = Grasshopper = Nightrider No white king 5. Gunter Jordan (DEU) 4 my % = Leo = Nightrider = Nightriderhopper Royal pawn d6 ´ 6. LuboˇsKekely (SVK) 2 solutions 2 solutions 2 solutions 7. -
Touring Problems – a Mathematical Approach
TOURING PROBLEMS – A MATHEMATICAL APPROACH VIPUL NAIK Abstract. The article surveys “touring”, a problem of “fun” math, and employs serious techniques to attack it. The text is suitable for high school students interested in Olympiad mathematics, as well as undergraduate students studying combinatorics and discrete math- ematics. It can be used to introduce the concept of a graph. A sequel to this article, on a similar analysis for “tiling” problems, shall also appear soon. 1. Prebeginnings 1.1. The knight’s tour. Chess pieces, with their variously defined moves, are a rich source of puzzles in recreational mathematics. Chess puzzles include the following types : • Nonattacking pieces puzzle : Given a piece with some moves defined, place as many copies of this piece as possible so that no two can kill each other. The proto- typical example of this is the eight queens problem – placing eight queens on the chessboard so that no two can kill each other. • Board domination puzzle : Given a piece with some moves defined, place as few copies of the piece as possible so that every square is either covered by some copy or is under direct attack by a copy of the piece. • Touring puzzle : Given a piece with some moves defined, construct a tour of the entire chessboard with that piece. The only nontrivial case of this for a standard chess piece is the knight’s tour. Each of these problems revolves around a piece, with certain moves defined for that piece. Instead of standard chess pieces, we may sometimes be interested in defining chess pieces with somewhat different moves. -
53Rd WORLD CONGRESS of CHESS COMPOSITION Crete, Greece, 16-23 October 2010
53rd WORLD CONGRESS OF CHESS COMPOSITION Crete, Greece, 16-23 October 2010 53rd World Congress of Chess Composition 34th World Chess Solving Championship Crete, Greece, 16–23 October 2010 Congress Programme Sat 16.10 Sun 17.10 Mon 18.10 Tue 19.10 Wed 20.10 Thu 21.10 Fri 22.10 Sat 23.10 ICCU Open WCSC WCSC Excursion Registration Closing Morning Solving 1st day 2nd day and Free time Session 09.30 09.30 09.30 free time 09.30 ICCU ICCU ICCU ICCU Opening Sub- Prize Giving Afternoon Session Session Elections Session committees 14.00 15.00 15.00 17.00 Arrival 14.00 Departure Captains' meeting Open Quick Open 18.00 Solving Solving Closing Lectures Fairy Evening "Machine Show Banquet 20.30 Solving Quick Gun" 21.00 19.30 20.30 Composing 21.00 20.30 WCCC 2010 website: http://www.chessfed.gr/wccc2010 CONGRESS PARTICIPANTS Ilham Aliev Azerbaijan Stephen Rothwell Germany Araz Almammadov Azerbaijan Rainer Staudte Germany Ramil Javadov Azerbaijan Axel Steinbrink Germany Agshin Masimov Azerbaijan Boris Tummes Germany Lutfiyar Rustamov Azerbaijan Arno Zude Germany Aleksandr Bulavka Belarus Paul Bancroft Great Britain Liubou Sihnevich Belarus Fiona Crow Great Britain Mikalai Sihnevich Belarus Stewart Crow Great Britain Viktor Zaitsev Belarus David Friedgood Great Britain Eddy van Beers Belgium Isabel Hardie Great Britain Marcel van Herck Belgium Sally Lewis Great Britain Andy Ooms Belgium Tony Lewis Great Britain Luc Palmans Belgium Michael McDowell Great Britain Ward Stoffelen Belgium Colin McNab Great Britain Fadil Abdurahmanović Bosnia-Hercegovina Jonathan -
Brilliant Mates in Moscow by IM Yochanan Afek
Chess Today is happy to present an article on composition by one of our readers – IM Yochanan Afek (left, photo by Cathy Rogers). This article was first published in Chess Today No. 1069 and 1070 (October 2003). Brilliant Mates in Moscow by IM Yochanan Afek, "Problems and games are two equal aspects of chess", wrote once Dr. Milan Vukcevich, the great American composer who passed away earlier this year and who was also a very strong over-the-board master. Obviously he did not refer by that to the number of people involved but rather to the injustice frequently done to this fine art, by too many players who tend to consider it as a waste of time for the purpose of improving one's playing skills. "Relative to the game", he explains, "a good chess problem activates more force per move, uses pieces more efficiently and stresses more their cooperation and interference with each other. A good problem may combine a dozen separate elements into one extraordinary event, in the same way in which a good novel may condense a dozen real lives into a single lifetime of its fictitious hero..." — food for the thought... Not everyone knows that within the immense world of chess, a smaller, yet a highly motivated and constantly growing community of problems and studies fans has developed over the years, organizing a variety of composing and solving events, publishing dozens of books and magazines, awarding official FIDE titles and even holding an annual congress. All this worldwide intensive activity is done voluntarily and winning dozens of prestigious awards definitely will not make one any richer as the prize money, if any, is usually rather modest. -
UIL Text 111212
UIL Chess Puzzle Solvin g— Fall/Winter District 2016-2017 —Grades 4 and 5 IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS: [Test-administrators, please read text in this box aloud.] This is the UIL Chess Puzzle Solving Fall/Winter District Test for grades four and five. There are 20 questions on this test. You have 30 minutes to complete it. All questions are multiple choice. Use the answer sheet to mark your answers. Multiple choice answers pur - posely do not indicate check, checkmate, or e.p. symbols. You will be awarded one point for each correct answer. No deductions will be made for incorrect answers on this test. Finishing early is not rewarded, even to break ties. So use all of your time. Some of the questions may be hard, but all of the puzzles are interesting! Good luck and have fun! If you don’t already know chess notation, reading and referring to the section below on this page will help you. How to read and answer questions on this test Piece Names Each chessman can • To answer the questions on this test, you’ll also be represented need to know how to read chess moves. It’s by a symbol, except for the pawn. simple to do. (Figurine Notation) K King Q • Every square on the board has an “address” Queen R made up of a letter and a number. Rook B Bishop N Knight Pawn a-h (We write the file it’s on.) • To make them easy to read, the questions on this test use the figurine piece symbols on the right, above. -
Proposal to Encode Heterodox Chess Symbols in the UCS Source: Garth Wallace Status: Individual Contribution Date: 2016-10-25
Title: Proposal to Encode Heterodox Chess Symbols in the UCS Source: Garth Wallace Status: Individual Contribution Date: 2016-10-25 Introduction The UCS contains symbols for the game of chess in the Miscellaneous Symbols block. These are used in figurine notation, a common variation on algebraic notation in which pieces are represented in running text using the same symbols as are found in diagrams. While the symbols already encoded in Unicode are sufficient for use in the orthodox game, they are insufficient for many chess problems and variant games, which make use of extended sets. 1. Fairy chess problems The presentation of chess positions as puzzles to be solved predates the existence of the modern game, dating back to the mansūbāt composed for shatranj, the Muslim predecessor of chess. In modern chess problems, a position is provided along with a stipulation such as “white to move and mate in two”, and the solver is tasked with finding a move (called a “key”) that satisfies the stipulation regardless of a hypothetical opposing player’s moves in response. These solutions are given in the same notation as lines of play in over-the-board games: typically algebraic notation, using abbreviations for the names of pieces, or figurine algebraic notation. Problem composers have not limited themselves to the materials of the conventional game, but have experimented with different board sizes and geometries, altered rules, goals other than checkmate, and different pieces. Problems that diverge from the standard game comprise a genre called “fairy chess”. Thomas Rayner Dawson, known as the “father of fairy chess”, pop- ularized the genre in the early 20th century. -
Chess Problems out of the Box
werner keym Chess Problems Out of the Box Nightrider Unlimited Chess is an international language. (Edward Lasker) Chess thinking is good. Chess lateral thinking is better. Photo: Gabi Novak-Oster In 2002 this chess problem (= no. 271) and this photo were pub- lished in the German daily newspaper Rhein-Zeitung Koblenz. That was a great success: most of the ‘solvers’ were wrong! Werner Keym Nightrider Unlimited The content of this book differs in some ways from the German edition Eigenartige Schachprobleme (Curious Chess Problems) which was published in 2010 and meanwhile is out of print. The complete text of Eigenartige Schachprobleme (errata included) is freely available for download from the publisher’s site, see http://www.nightrider-unlimited.de/angebot/keym_1st_ed.pdf. Copyright © Werner Keym, 2018 All rights reserved. Kuhn † / Murkisch Series No. 46 Revised and updated edition 2018 First edition in German 2010 Published by Nightrider Unlimited, Treuenhagen www.nightrider-unlimited.de Layout: Ralf J. Binnewirtz, Meerbusch Printed / bound by KLEVER GmbH, Bergisch Gladbach ISBN 978-3-935586-14-6 Contents Preface vii Chess composition is the poetry of chess 1 Castling gala 2 Four real castlings in directmate problems and endgame studies 12 Four real castlings in helpmate two-movers 15 Curious castling tasks 17 From the Allumwandlung to the Babson task 18 From the Valladao task to the Keym task 28 The (lightened) 100 Dollar theme 35 How to solve retro problems 36 Economical retro records (type A, B, C, M) 38 Economical retro records -
Birth of the Chess Queen C Marilyn Yalom for Irv, Who Introduced Me to Chess and Other Wonders Contents
A History Birth of the Chess Queen C Marilyn Yalom For Irv, who introduced me to chess and other wonders Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction xii Selected Rulers of the Period xx part 1 • the mystery of the chess queen’ s birth One Chess Before the Chess Queen 3 Two Enter the Queen! 15 Three The Chess Queen Shows Her Face 29 part 2 • spain, italy, and germany Four Chess and Queenship in Christian Spain 39 Five Chess Moralities in Italy and Germany 59 part 3 • france and england Six Chess Goes to France and England 71 v • contents Seven Chess and the Cult of the Virgin Mary 95 Eight Chess and the Cult of Love 109 part 4 • scandinavia and russia Nine Nordic Queens, On and Off the Board 131 Ten Chess and Women in Old Russia 151 part 5 • power to the queen Eleven New Chess and Isabella of Castile 167 Twelve The Rise of “Queen’s Chess” 187 Thirteen The Decline of Women Players 199 Epilogue 207 Notes 211 Index 225 About the Author Praise Other Books by Marilyn Yalom Credits Cover Copyright About the Publisher Waking Piece The world dreams in chess Kibitzing like lovers Pawn’s queened redemption L is a forked path only horses lead. Rook and King castling for safety Bishop boasting of crossways slide. Echo of Orbit: starless squared sky. She alone moves where she chooses. Protecting helpless monarch, her bidden skill. Attacking schemers, plotters, blundered all. Game eternal. War breaks. She enters. Check mate. Hail Queen. How we crave Her majesty. —Gary Glazner Acknowledgments This book would not have been possible without the vast philo- logical, archaeological, literary, and art historical research of pre- vious writers, most notably from Germany and England. -
Finding Checkmate in N Moves in Chess Using Backtracking And
Finding Checkmate in N moves in Chess using Backtracking and Depth Limited Search Algorithm Moch. Nafkhan Alzamzami 13518132 Informatics Engineering School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics Institute Technology of Bandung, Jalan Ganesha 10 Bandung [email protected] [email protected] Abstract—There have been many checkmate potentials that has pieces of a dark color. There are rules about how pieces players seem to miss. Players have been training for finding move, and about taking the opponent's pieces off the board. checkmates through chess checkmate puzzles. Such problems can The player with white pieces always makes the first move.[4] be solved using a simple depth-limited search and backtracking Because of this, White has a small advantage, and wins more algorithm with legal moves as the searching paths. often than Black in tournament games.[5][6] Keywords—chess; checkmate; depth-limited search; Chess is played on a square board divided into eight rows backtracking; graph; of squares called ranks and eight columns called files, with a dark square in each player's lower left corner.[8] This is I. INTRODUCTION altogether 64 squares. The colors of the squares are laid out in There have been many checkmate potentials that players a checker (chequer) pattern in light and dark squares. To make seem to miss. Players have been training for finding speaking and writing about chess easy, each square has a checkmates through chess checkmate puzzles. Such problems name. Each rank has a number from 1 to 8, and each file a can be solved using a simple depth-limited search and letter from a to h.