Kriegspiel solving competition

The chess variant called Kriegspiel was invented in 1899 in South Africa. Since then, this variant always has been in the attention of chess variant players and chess problem composers (with its ups and downs.) To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the game, we had a competition in solving Kriegspiel problems.

The rules of Kriegspiel (and some additional links) can be found at Chess Variants site:

Rules of Kriegspiel.

There are two webpages with together all problems, selected for this competition. Problems differ in form, difficulty, and beauty (although different people will like different ones better.) In total, there are nine problems.

Results

Interested souls can first look at the solutions. Other people can read about points for solutions received by me and my comments.

I think competition can be considered successful as problems proved to be solvable as well as not trivial, amusing, but also serious. Some problems contained traps not escaped by everyone.

Points received for all problems

Jean Roche, Comm Rex Multiplex 1986
- D. Carey: 2/10 - didn't state question "Are there any?"
- A. Pfeiffer: 8/10 - in variation Bd) 2.Qf4+? Kh6-h5!
- J. DiMuro: 6/10 - 2.Qe6+? Kxg7! twice
- O. Ronat: 10
Jean Marc Loustau, 132 Phénix 2 - 1988
- D. Carey: 10
- A. Pfeiffer: 4/10 - wrong order of moves tried by white in a) and b)
- J. DiMuro: 7/10 - wrong order of moves tried by white in a)
- O. Ronat: 10
Jean Marc Loustau, 303 Phénix 5 - 1989
- D. Carey: 9/10 - missing answer to black 1...Rxh5! (both Rb2, Bxd3 impossible)
- A. Pfeiffer: 6/10 - on "xh5" Bxd3 Qxd3!
- J. DiMuro: 6/10 - on "xh5" Bxd3 Qxd3!
- O. Ronat: 10 - I think underlying black moves are exchanged on "xh5", but the order of white tries is OK
Jean Marc Loustau, 470 Phénix 7 - 1989
- D. Carey: 10
- A. Pfeiffer: 10
- J. DiMuro: 10
- O. Ronat: 10
Jaques Rotenberg, The Problemist 1976
- D. Carey: 10 - is there a dual 5.Rb5 // Rh7! or Rh3!? It seems yes as both rook moves only wait
- A. Pfeiffer: 10
- J. DiMuro: -
- O. Ronat: -
Jean Roche, 699 Phénix 10 - 1990
- D. Carey: 10
- A. Pfeiffer: 1/10 - 1.Rf7? no announcement! (Kc8-b8)
- J. DiMuro: -
- O. Ronat: 10
Jean Roche, 813 Phénix 11-12 - 1990
- D. Carey: 10
- A. Pfeiffer: 10
- J. DiMuro: 10
- O. Ronat: 10
Jean Marc Loustau, 933 Phénix 13 - 1991
- D. Carey: 8/10 - in your notation M, xg6 +ld is 2.Ned4+? Kf7!
- A. Pfeiffer: 7/10 - check on long (Rf4+) 2.Sbd4+? Ke5! one point less than above as it is more important variation
- J. DiMuro: -
- O. Ronat: 10
Jaques Rotenberg, 1408 Phénix 19-20 - 1992
- D. Carey: 10
- A. Pfeiffer: 10 - possible typo somewhere "c2 6.Re1#"
- J. DiMuro: -
- O. Ronat: 10

Some other nice and original touches by participants

D. Carey: I liked intelligent description for the second set of problems although it is not standard, it is easily readable. Also an idea of 5.Rb5 //Rh7! in 5. is new.
A. Pfeiffer: Very clearly written.
J. DiMuro: The most elaborate comments, but in any way no boring! It was exciting to read them. Especially comments to problems 4. and 7.
O. Ronat: Standard notation for Kriegspiel! I especially appreciated stating of tries in problem 6.

Gloomy corner

D. Carey: Looking at total points reveals suffering from not solving the very first problem correctly and from a few mistakes in otherwise well solved problems. Anyway, I was amused by incorrect thinking in 1.
A. Pfeiffer: The greatest number of mistakes.
J. DiMuro: The least number of solved problems.
O. Ronat: Luckily escaped 2nd place and finished first in spite of not solving 5.

Total

O. Ronat: 80
D. Carey: 79
A. Pfeiffer: 66
J. DiMuro: 39

Prizes

Main prize (a book on problems by Samuel Loyd) goes to winner, O. Ronat.

Good luck in the form of CD-ROM goes to runner-up, D. Carey.

As all solvers proved excellent skills I decided to award also remaining two people, prizes are in the form of chess composition booklets about fairy chess written by Václav Kotesovec.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to success of our competition in any way!

See also

Two kriegspiel problems by Henk Swart.

WWW page made by Hans Bodlaender and Juraj Lörinc.

WWW page created: August 21, 1999. Last modified: March 1, 2001.

Comments to Juraj Lörinc.

The above was authored by: Juraj Lörinc. .
The above was edited/posted by: Hans L. Bodlaender
Created on: August 21, 1999. Last modified on: March 01, 2001.

See also:

Crazyhouse Kriegspiel. Combines Crazyhouse with Kriegspiel. By: David Dana-Bashian

Kriegspiel. With help of a referee, two players move without knowing the moves of the opponent Author: Hans L. Bodlaender Inventor: Henry Michael Temple

Romulan Chess. Kriegspiel variant: played with a referee where pieces cloak and uncloak Author: Steve Kramer and Hans L. Bodlaender

American Kriegspiel. With help of a referee, 2 players move w/o knowing the moves of the opponent, but know where P's can capture & what enemy fo Author: Ed Friedlander

Assassin Kriegspiel. Kriegspiel variant with unknown setups and special roles for knights and queen Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Hubert Philips

Discreet Kriegspiel. Kriegspiel with no information about pawn captures or checks; win by capturing the opposing king Author: Ed Friedlander

Kriegspiel. With help of a referee, two players move without knowing the moves of the opponent. Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Henry Michael Temple

Mafeking Kriegspiel. Players choose their own setups, unknown to opponent, units adjacent by Knights (spies) are visable Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Hubert Philips

One-Eye Chess (Blind). Kriegspiel variant where one side can see, but lacks both Knights, a Bishop and the Queen Author: Ed Friedlander

One-Eye Chess (Sighted). Kriegspiel variant where one side can see, but lacks both Knights, a Bishop and the Queen Author: Ed Friedlander

Original Kriegspiel. With help of a referee, two players move without knowing the moves of the opponent (captured piece types revealed) Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Henry Michael Temple

Pickle Pot Chess (Blind). Kriegspiel variant where one side can see, but lacks both Knights, a Bishop and both Rooks Author: Ed Friedlander

Pickle Pot Chess (Sighted). Kriegspiel variant where one side can see, but lacks both Knights, a Bishop and both Rooks Author: Ed Friedlander

Welbeck Kriegspiel. Players choose their own setups, unknown to opponent Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Hubert Philips

Kriegspiel - positions for solving. Five kriegspiel problems Author: Juraj Lörinc

Kriegspiel - positions for solving 2. More kriegspiel problems Author: Juraj Lörinc

A Kriegspiel problem. Author: Hans L. Bodlaender Inventor: Geoffrey Foster

A Kriegspiel problem. A Kriegspiel mate in two with solution Author: Hans L. Bodlaender Inventor: Geoffrey Foster

Kriegspiel problems. Two problems to solve Author: Henk Swart

Books on Kriegspiel. Author: David Li

Kriegspiel - Cincinnati Style. A description of Kriegspiel as played in Cincinnati in the 1970's, with a discussion of why those particular rules were used Author: David Moeser

Kriegspiel Zillions v 2.0 file. Zillions file to play Kriegspiel against the computer. The human player's pieces are not hidden (Zillions of Games file) By: Andreas Kaufmann

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Last modified: Sunday, August 21, 2005