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Gianni Donati 50th Jubilee Tourney (c) Award -- 2002-2003 Place Awards Introductory Remarks of Gianni Donati: I could not have imagined a more delightful set of entries to this tourney. My thanks to Dan Meinking for administering the tourney and for keeping after me to make the difficult choices required by the high level of the competition. Thanks also to Michel Caillaud, Noam Elkies, Ryan McCracken and Kostas Prentos, who woodshedded the 94 entries (after Dan had given them his initial review) and cooked 13 of them, leaving 81 problems to judge. (I believe Dan notified the authors of the cooks; many attempted ambitious schemes which I hope can be corrected and published.) The entries exhibited numerous motivations for a promotee to leave its promotion square and return, which was the theme of this tourney: these included capture of an opposing unit (most often a pawn or a blocked bishop); clearance; screening of one king or the other against check; provision of a safe path for the opposing king; and tempo. In general, games in which capture-and-return was the principal motivation were less successful than others, though this was not uniformly the case. The theme lent itself to the production of extra-set pieces in the diagram, but happily many composers managed against all odds to avoid this even while showing complex ideas. I am comfortable with the selection of nine problems for prizes, though I am not sure I got the ranking among them right. They are all splendid problems and achieve their aims elegantly, without evidence of the difficulty which composing them surely entailed. I selected fifteen problems for Honorable Mention and twenty-two for Commendations. While this honors slightly over 50% of the entries - which may seem a high proportion - the truth is I wrestled with myself to cut the list down. There were many fine problems that do not appear here, and they surely would have had the overall level of composition not been so high. I thank everyone who contributed to make this tourney a great success and a wonderful birthday present! -- Gianni Donati, Princeton, NJ, December 2003 Thanks to Dan Meinking for providing the following explanation of this genre of chess problem: Proofgame Basics: The stipulation "PG in X moves" simply means that the composer has given the FINAL (diagrammed) position of a theoretical game, reached in X moves from the game-array. You, the solver, are asked: What was the game score? The condition "X moves"/"X.5 moves" means that black/white moved last. The label "C+"/"C-" states that the problem is/isn't verified by computer. The piece-count appears in parentheses, and serves as a hash-total of the "white+black" unit-totals in the diagram. This is useful if, for example, the solver believes a diagram may be incorrect. Please send claims of anticipation or unsoundness to
Dan Meinking by
July 31, 2004. 1st Prize
The promoted Knight describes a continuous hexagon,
screening against the bQ's check at the midpoint. It returns to its
promotion square to be captured there. The play unfolds so naturally one
almost overlooks that something astonishing is occurring! 1.a4 d5
2.Ra3 Bh3 3.Rb3 Kd7 4.Rb6 axb6 5.f4 Rxa4 6.f5 Re4 7.f6 Re6 8.fxe7 f5 9.e8=N
Bc5 10.Nd6 Bd4 11.Ne4 Qh4+ 12.Ng3 Qe4 13.Nh5 g5 14.Ng7 Nf6 15.Ne8 Rhxe8 2nd Prize
Two promoted white Bishops leave c8 to be screened by
12...f5, and then they return to c8 to be captured. As if this weren't
enough, the Bf1 turns into an anti-Pronkin, and it too gets captured at c8!
1.b4 e5 2.b5 Ne7 3.b6 Ng6 4.bxc7 b5 5.c4 Bb7 6.c8=B Qa5 7.c5 Qxa2 8.c6 Ba3
9.c7 d6 10.Bh3 a5 11.c8=B Na6 12.Bcg4 f5 13.d3 OOO 14.Bg5 Kb8 15.e3 f4
16.Bc8 Rxc8 17.Be2 Rc1 18.Bc8 Rhxc8 19.Bg4 R8c2 20.Bc8 Bxc8 3rd Prize
The promoted black Bishop returns "home" from its promotion
square, in order to screen against a check, and then returns by a different
route to get captured on the promotion square. 1.f3 g5 2.f4 Bg7 3.f5 Bc3
4.bxc3 Nf6 5.Ba3 Rg8 6.Bc5 Rg6 7.Na3 Rh6 8.Rb1 Rh3 9.gxh3 g4 10.Bg2 g3
11.Bd5 g2 12.Nf3 g1=B 13.Rb4 Be3 14.Rg1 Bh6 15.Rg8+ Bf8 16.Rh8 Ng8 17.Rf4
Bg7 18.Bc4 Bd4 19.f6 Bg1 20.Bxg1 4th Prize
The promoted white Bishop leaves its promotion square by a
counterclockwise route. No sooner has it returned than it leaves again and
retraces its steps, clockwise now! 1.a4 h5 2.a5 Rh6 3.a6 Rc6 4.axb7 a5
5.bxc8=B a4 6.Ba6 Qc8 7.Bc4 Qa6 8.Be6 Qd3 9.exd3 a3 10.Qf3 a2 11.Qf6 exf6
12.f4 Bd6 13.f5 Bxh2 14.Kd1 Be5 15.Rh4 d6 16.Rb4 h4 17.Bc8 h3 18.Rxb8 h2
19.Rb5 h1=R 20.Be6 Rh4 21.Bc4 OOO 22.Rd5 Kb8 23.Ba6 Rhc4 24.Bc8 5th Prize
Matching squares traced by the promoted Bishops! That this
is managed without extra-set pieces is astounding. 1.c4 e5 2.c5 Bd6 3.cxd6
c5 4.Qb3 c4 5.Qh3 c3 6.d3 c2 7.Bd2 c1=B 8.b4 Bb2 9.Na3 Bc3 10.OOO g5 11.Be1
Bd2+ 12.Kb2 g4 13.Rc1 g3 14.Rxc8 gxf2 15.Rc3 Qh4 16.g3 Nf6 17.Bg2 f1=B 18.e3
Be2 19.Nc4 Bf3 20.Ne2 Rg8 21.Rf1 Rg6 22.Bh1 Bg2 23.Rf3 Bf1 24.Ka3 Bc1+
25.Nb2 6th Prize
The promoted Rook describes a small square (c8-c7-d7-c8) and
then surprise, it becomes a Phoenix at a1! The construction shows no sign of
strain, and the White side is charmingly "all at home" in the diagram. 1.g4
h6 2.g5 hxg5 3.d4 Rh6 4.d5 Rb6 5.d6 Nc6 6.dxc7 d6 7.a4 Kd7 8.Ra3 Ke6 9.Rf3
Bd7 10.c8=R Be8 11.Rc7 Rc8 12.Rd7 Rc7 13.Rf4 Qa8 14.Rd8 Rd7 15.Rc8 Nd8
16.Rc3 gxf4 17.Ra3 g5 18.Ra1 7th Prize
The promoted bN must leave b1 to permit White to castle, and
then oh what trouble he has getting back there! An irregular octogon, nicely
featuring a visit to f1. 1.b4 c5 2.b5 Nc6 3.bxc6 d6 4.c7 Bd7 5.c8=N e6 6.Ne7
b5 7.Ng6 hxg6 8.c3 Rh4 9.Qc2 Ra4 10.e4 b4 11.Bc4 b3 12.d3 b2 13.Nd2 b1=N
14.h4 Na3 15.Rh2 Nb5 16.Ba3 Nd4 17.OOO Nf5 18.Re1 Ng3 19.Re3 Nf1 20.Rg3 g5
21.Ndf3 Nd2 22.Rg4 Nb1 8th Prize
The promoted Bishop takes a 9-move trip in order to lose a
tempo, and it gets captured upon its return to the promotion square. The
only "flaw" is that the Bishop's withdrawal from the promotion square is
required also to permit 12...0-0, so the motivation for the long trip is not
entirely "tempo." [Note: Another entry, presumably by the same composer,
features a similar Bishop trek on the queenside; in that problem the Bishop
withdrawal also is a clearance of the back rank, and while the choice of
square-order on the 3-square line (a3-b4-c5) is subtler, the promotee does
not get captured at the end. Thus, I have chosen the present problem for the
award.] 1.c4 h5 2.c5 h4 3.c6 Nxc6 4.Qa4 Rb8 5.Qa6 bxa6 6.f4 Rb5 7.f5 Bb7
8.f6 Rf5 9.fxg7 Nf6 10.g8=B Bh6 11.Bh7 Be3 12.Bg6 0-0 13.Bh5 Kh8 14.Bg4 Rg8
15.Bf3 Rg3 16.Bh5 Qg8 17.Bg6 Nd8 18.Bh7 Qg5 19.Bg8 Nxg8 9th Prize
This problem doubles a clearance maneuver, with the promoted
white Rooks permitting the black Rooks to emerge. Delightfully achieved
without extra-set Rooks! 1.h4 d5 2.Rh3 d4 3.Re3 dxe3 4.h5 Qd3 5.h6 Kd7
6.hxg7 h5 7.a4 Qh7 8.a5 f5 9.a6 Nf6 10.axb7 a5 11.g8=R Na6 12.Rg3 Rg8
13.b8=R Rg4 14.Rb3 Rh4 15.Rg8 Rb8 16.g4 Rb4 17.g5 Rbg4 18.Ra4 Rg2 19.Re4
fxe4 20.Rb8 Coming Soon: Honorable Mention Commendations
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