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06-08-2012 , 06:46 PM

TexAg06

veteran

Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 2,475

White to move and win. Solution is in the spoiler.

Spoiler:

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06-08-2012 , 11:43 PM

plastic

grinder

Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 427

Spoiler:

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06-08-2012 , 11:49 PM

plastic

grinder

Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 427

Spoiler:

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06-08-2012 , 11:57 PM

TexAg06

veteran

Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 2,475

Spoiler:

Quote

06-09-2012 , 12:16 AM

KyleJRM82

old hand

Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 1,785

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 12:57 AM

ganstaman

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 10,852

Quote:

Originally Posted by TexAg06

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 04:15 AM

Do it Right

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 3,890

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 07:32 AM

Vempele

adept

Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 841

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 12:51 PM

RoundTower

ɹǝʍoʇpunoɹ

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 14,563

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 02:55 PM

#10

mangler241

grinder

Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 534

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoundTower

Spoiler:

Correct, if this is to be an acceptable endgame study.

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 03:19 PM

#11

RoundTower

ɹǝʍoʇpunoɹ

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 14,563

Quote:

Originally Posted by mangler241

Correct, if this is to be an acceptable endgame study.

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 03:52 PM

#12

Vempele

adept

Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 841

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoundTower

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 04:17 PM

#13

mangler241

grinder

Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 534

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vempele

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 04:26 PM

#14

Vempele

adept

Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 841

Spoiler:

Last edited by Vempele; 06-09-2012 at 04:36 PM.

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06-09-2012 , 05:06 PM

#15

RoundTower

ɹǝʍoʇpunoɹ

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 14,563

think we've had enough spoilers, anyone who gets this far probably has figured out the theme of the problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mangler241

This motif must have occurred in some OTB game with a GM, so does anyone here remember one?

Robert Timmer's Startling Castling! (not the only name this book has been published under) has an impressive 21 examples of this theme, including some games played by GMs and one by Max Euwe. The oldest example is Thornton-Boultbee, 1884:

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06-09-2012 , 08:38 PM

#16

TomCowley

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 5,649

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 09:36 PM

#17

RoundTower

ɹǝʍoʇpunoɹ

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 14,563

Spoiler:

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06-09-2012 , 10:34 PM

#18

TomCowley

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 5,649

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoundTower

Spoiler:

White's up a rook in the diagram so almost anything wins :P. Add a rook on h8 and I don't see anything exciting for white though.

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06-09-2012 , 10:48 PM

#19

RoundTower

ɹǝʍoʇpunoɹ

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 14,563

Lol I think the rook was there. I copied from someone's blog, if I was anyone else I would infract myself because I'm such a petty dick of a mod obv

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06-12-2012 , 07:41 AM

#20

youtalkfunny

dumbest smart person his mom knows

Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 21,758

Wow.

I'm 45 years old, and I learned this game when I was 5. I'm no serious player, but I never lose against people who know the rules but never cracked a book on it.

I give you this bio because I find it amazing that, in all that time, there was a flaw in my knowledge of the rules! For some reason, I was under the impression that castling was not allowed if any of the squares between the rook and king were under attack (in the OP's screen shot, b1 is vulnerable to black's rook).

Still a silly puzzle, but it wasn't a total waste of time, I learned something that's actually useful.

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06-12-2012 , 08:45 AM

#21

wlrs

adept

Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 989

I thought the idea of castling kingside instead was nice so I made into a diagram

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06-12-2012 , 08:53 AM

#22

Noir_Desir

veteran

Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2,333

Quote:

Originally Posted by TexAg06

I came across this problem a while back on chess.com's tactics trainer. I thought about the position for quite a while and couldn't find a win for white. Surely the server is mistaken, I thought. When I gave up and saw the solution, I wanted to punch someone in the face. It's ridiculous (not impossible, but HIGHLY improbable) to think that the game could get to this point without white moving his king or rook. There was no hint with the problem to indicate that white still had the ability to castle, and given the situation on the board I think it's up to them to indicate white has that option.

Sorry, just needed to rant. I hope I tricked some of you like happened to me

In chess problems castling is always allowed as long as it can't be proven that it's illegal. I remember seeing a problem where finding the mate was blatantly easy, but proving that castling (which would also have won) was illegal was pretty hard. Thus the problem was kind of a retro-analysis problem disguised as a regular one.

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06-12-2012 , 10:47 AM

#23

ganstaman

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 10,852

Quote:

Originally Posted by youtalkfunny

I give you this bio because I find it amazing that, in all that time, there was a flaw in my knowledge of the rules! For some reason, I was under the impression that castling was not allowed if any of the squares between the rook and king were under attack (in the OP's screen shot, b1 is vulnerable to black's rook).

If it helps, you're not alone.

Korchnoi-Karpov 1974
"from Catastrophe in the Opening by James Plaskett..

Korchnoi went up to arbiter Alberic O'Kelly and asked if it was legal for him to castle when his rook was attacked. The GM assured him that it was. Korchnoi wrote that in the thousands of games that he had played up until then, there had simply never yet arisen a situation like that, and he was not sure that he understood the rules of the game correctly."

And if you don't know who Korchnoi is, by the time that game was played, he had already won 4 Soviet Championships, and according to chessmetrics.com he was rated #2 in the world then.

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06-12-2012 , 01:18 PM

#24

mangler241

grinder

Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 534

Quote:

Originally Posted by ganstaman

Yes, I remember that was quite humorous. Off topic, there was great video series ( it's quite long and I'd guess you'd probably want to be about expert strength or better to get much out of it; not sure if you can still get it! ) on youtube where Kasparov discusses his chess career with GM Plaskett.

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06-12-2012 , 06:41 PM

#25

youtalkfunny

dumbest smart person his mom knows

Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 21,758

Jesus, is there no end to this indignity?

I was talking about the empty square at b1. I thought it went without saying that castling would be illegal if the rook on a1 were under attack!

How the hell does something like this happen?

(Actually, I said I learned the game at 5, but I think a few years went by before I learned about castling, and I never heard of en passant until I was an adult...)

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