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Bughouse Quiz 5 |
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Bughouse Quiz 5 |
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This is installment #5 in my bughouse quizzes. If you haven't seen the first installment yet, I suggest you try that one first. (Here's a link to get there.) This quiz is a little tougher than the first one, and it includes three double board problems.
For the first six positions on this page, the rules are the same as in the first quiz: You are White, and your goal is to find the forced wins, subject to the following conditions:
Following these six positions are the three double board problems, along with the rules to follow when solving those problems.
The answers are included after the diagrams --
to check an answer to a specific problem, click on the number
for that problem. The single board problems appear next...
          
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For the double board problems that follow, pretend that you have a partner you are in communication with. (You're the smart one, of course.) It is your team's move on both boards. Using both boards, work out a plan to force a win.
In addition to showing the board positions and pieces in hand, you'll
note the double board diagrams have clocks showing the time remaining
for each player. These clocks may be a factor in the solution, so be
sure to consider them.
 
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#1
This bughouse quiz was uploaded during the holiday season. Like anything else that comes out around Christmas time, I felt obligated to work a Christmas theme into some positions, so here's the first one. (Work with me on this. It takes a little imagination.)
To force mate, White carefully starts with 1. Bg7+!, vacating
the h6 square. After 1...Kg8, White weaves a star pattern by
2. N@h6+ Kh7 3. N@f8+ Rxf8 4. exf8=Nmate. The same star pattern
arises after 1...Kh7 2. N@f8+ Rxf8 3. exf8=N+ Kg8 4. N@h6mate.
So there's your Christmas theme -- behold the star rising in the East!
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#2
For this second puzzle, let's watch Santa go up the chimney. The part of Mr. Claus will be played by the White king.
This is the type of position that most often occurs when one of the players on the other board has to sit. The material has stopped flowing, forcing the players on the active board to "play chess". However, White cleverly kept a pawn in hand, and this pawn becomes very powerful with the limited material on the board.
White starts with 1. Bf6! to reduce Black's options --
Black's kingside is immobilized, and, thanks to that offboard pawn White still has,
Black can't move any of his queenside pawns (i.e. 1...a5 2. P@a7; 1...b5 2. P@b7;
1...c5 2. P@c7). Black's only safe moves are with his bishop, but after
1...Bb5 2. Kh2 Bd7 3. Kg2! Black is in "bugzwang" -- he still
can't move a pawn, and the bishop must give way, allowing the White king to continue
his climb up the chimney. After 3...Bb5 4. Kh3 Bd7+ 5. Kh4 Bb5 6. Kg5 Bd7
White breaks down all barriers with 7. Bxe5! dxe5 (or 7...f5 8. Kf6
Be8 9. Bxd6) 8. Kf6 Bb5 9. Kxe5 Bd7 10. Kf6 Bb5 11. e5 Be8 12. d4 Bd7
13. e6! and wins (if 13...fxe6 14. P@f7+). The point worth noting in this
study is that the pawn doesn't get dropped until move 14 in the main line, yet it
has a paralyzing effect on Black all the way.
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#3
With Black's back rank looking a bit drafty, a queen drop comes to mind. However,
the direct approach of 1. Q@c8 B@d8 2. P@d7+ Ke7 doesn't appear to go anywhere.
The surefire way to mate is to draw the Black king to a square where he can't hide:
1. P@d7+! Kxd7 2. B@c8+! Kxc8 (not 2...Kc6 3. Q@b5mate or 2...Ke7
Q@d7mate). With the king on c8, the combination runs like clockwork:
3. Q@e8+! any@d8 4. P@d7+ Kb8 5. Qxd8+ any@c8 6.Qxc8mate.
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#4
The winning idea in this position comes from an annotated game found on Fabrice Liardet's bughouse page, or, more properly, "La Page d'echecs de Fabrice Liardet". Liardet has two instructive and well-annotated games on his bughouse page, one of which has been translated into English, that are definitely worthy of study. (Hey, Fabrice, you were wondering if there would be any interest in annotated bughouse games on a Web site. Well, I for one really like the idea and will use my bughouse site, which gets dozens of hits every year, to tell other buggers about it. A plug for your Web site - just what you wanted for Christmas!)
In the diagrammed position, White can try a variety of discovered and double checks
by moving his knight. However, none of the knight moves accomplish anything if
done right away, as the Black king just runs to the queenside to escape the checks.
So, first White cuts off the king's escape with 1. R@e8+!,
sacrificing a rook. After 1...anyxe8 2. Nf5+! all the king's
escape routes have been cut off, and it's mate in two: 2...Kg8 3. N@f6+ Kh8
4. Bg7mate or 2...P@g7 3. Bxg7+ Kg8 4. N@f6mate.
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#5
Queenside castling has a reputation for being a risky proposition in bughouse, to the point where many bughouse players will castle queenside only when the alternative is to get slaughtered on the kingside. Well, I suppose it's true the king tends to be a bit more vulnerable after queenside castling, the biggest problem being the a1/a8 square, which becomes an inviting place for a piece drop. As soon as you castle queenside, you might as well paint a bull's eye on the a1/a8 square, because that's where a lot of buggers immediately start looking.
For some reason, a queen drop on the corner square is especially popular -- many buggers will play it the moment they have a queen in hand. Sure, a queen drop on a8 is a good move if you have a strong follow-up; for example, if a White pawn is added to a6 in the diagrammed position, 1. Q@a8+ is great because the next move will be 2. axb7mate. On the other hand, it seems to me the queen drop is frequently played when there is no strong follow-up, in which case the move accomplishes less than nothing. For example, if 1. Q@a8+ is played in the diagrammed position, Black just plays 1...Q@b8, and after 2. Q@b8+ Kxb8 all White has done is draw the Black king to a safer square. (For a more dramatic illustration of how a queen drop in the corner can backfire, see position 2 in quiz 4.)
The win in this one does start with a piece drop on a8, but not with the queen:
1. B@a8! Black must drop his queen on b6 or b8 to guard b7, else
White plays Bxb7+ followed by Q@a8mate. However, now that Black's queen is on the
board, White no longer has to keep his bishop on f1 to guard against ...Q@g2mate,
so the "attack-defense" bishop transforms into a pure attacker. The finish is
1...Q@b6 2. Bxb7+ Qxb7 3. P@a6 Nxa6 4. Bxa6 Qxa6 5. Q@a8+ "pseudomate".
It's not actually checkmate, but Black has no pieces to interpose.
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#6
This final single board problem originally appeared as the October puzzle in my Contest Puzzle series. Since response hasn't been strong, I have a feeling I'll be giving that series a proper burial sometime during the year 2000. Having said that, I still think this particular study, a "bughouse endgame", is one of my best puzzles to date. I like its simplicity, and I think most players would find the solution surprising. So what if it ain't practical knowledge? It's cute and elegant in its barely dressed state, like that skinny girl you fantasized about while you were in 8th grade History class.
Yes, um, as I was saying, maybe my Contest Puzzle series will be Deep Sixing next year, but I really think this particular puzzle deserves a permanent home. So, it will take an esteemed place as position #6 of Bughouse Quiz 5, which means I am now officially closing the October contest. I only got four correct solvers for my Dreidel Ten Solvers list (um, that's a Hanukkah reference for my Jewish readers), but that's okay, those four buggers will be officially recognized as Supreme Puzzle Solver Gods for solving this deceptively difficult puzzle. So, congratulations to Oliver Hausherr, Dragonslayr, Kueh, and Fabrice Liardet -- you guys are my heroes.
Getting to the solution: if you know a little theory on the K+R vs K+B ending in conventional chess, your first instinct is probably to drop the rook on the 7th rank, driving the Black king to the back row. However, there is no win by doing this, even with the additional winning possibility of stalemating Black. (Since this is bughouse, a stalemate is as good as a win, as it forces your opponent to sit.) The winning trick is similar to the idea seen in problem #2 -- the threat of a piece drop forces the win of the Black bishop.
The winning move is 1. Kd4!!. If Black plays 1...Be1, then White plays 2. Kc4! and Black has no moves that do not lose the bishop. (Check it out, it's really true.) Similar is 1...Bc1 2. Ke4!. All other bishop moves lose to a rook drop.
After 1...Kd8, White plays 2. Kd3! and now 2...Be1 3. Kc4! or 2...Bc1 3. Ke4! traps the bishop. That leaves as the main line 1...Kd6 2. Kd3!, when Black has four moves with the bishop that do not immediately lose to a rook drop: (a) 2...Bc1 3. Ke4! (b) 2...Be1 3. Kc4! (c) 2...Bb4 3. Kc4! Bc5 4. R@d5+, and finally (d) 2...Bf4 3. Ke4! Be5 4. R@d5+.
Gee, when you see the answer in print, the win suddenly doesn't look all
that tough, does it?
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#7
Certainly, Black would like to kick his attack into full throttle right now, before his opponent has a chance to cover up his holes, but he is faced with that classic bughouse dilemma: he is behind on his clock and he doesn't have enough material in hand to finish off his opponent. He can try 1...P@e3+, hoping for 2. Kg3?, when, if his partner alertly plays 1. Qxe7+!, he has 2...B@f4mate. However, after 1...P@e3+ 2. Kg1! there is no mate; for example, if his partner plays 1. Qxe7+ to feed him a bishop, he can continue 2. B@f2+ Kh2 but is still one pawn short of mate. If the Black opponent now plays 1...Qxe7+ 2. Be3 and sits, forcing the Black player to move, the opponents are actually in a good position to turn this game around.
Another try that doesn't work is for White to start with 1. Bxg6+. That will probably work against most players, who will immediately play 1...hxg6 without thinking -- then White plays 2. Qxe7+! Qxe7+ 3. Be3! and Black has enough material in hand to mate. However, as with the 1. P@e3 try, the right response to 1. Bxg6+ is to sit. When Black runs out of checks and is forced to move, the White opponent sets up a defense, either by covering the next check or moving a piece to give the king a safe square, and it's still a game.
Despite the problem posed by the clock situation in this one, there is one surefire way to win this game, and the way to do it is to begin by making up the time deficit. First, White feeds his partner a bishop with 1. Qxe7!+ Qxe7+ 2. Be3!. (Of course, any other second move would allow 2...Q@d1mate.) Black takes this bishop and plays 1...B@e3! 2. Kg3 Bf4+! 3. Kf2 Be3+ 4. Kg3 Bf4+, continuing the checking sequence until the clocks are in his favor -- naturally, since this is bughouse, there is no three-move repetition to worry about. When the clocks are in his favor, the Black opponent will be forced to move, the White player will capture a pawn, and the game is won.
By the way, the idea for this study is based on a real position I had recently. The position was a little less clear-cut, but it was won essentially the same way, after my partner repeated the position something like 50 times. After the game, my partner apologized profusely to his opponent, saying it was a really cheesy way to win. Heck, maybe I have no pride, but I didn't feel that way at all. In fact, I thought the way we won it was pretty darn clever.
Hmm, for you FICS players, I guess that same caveat is needed that was also in the
notes for puzzle #8 of Bughouse Quiz 2 -
since your server recognizes three-fold
repetitions, your opponents can squirm out of this one by claiming a draw. As I said
in my comments for that other puzzle, the FICS really needs to fix this "bug". (Well,
certainly it would make sense to have the ICC and FICS servers follow the same rule here.)
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#8
As a reprise to my "master bashing" studies of Bughouse Quiz 4, here's an interesting missed win from a master level game. The position is from game #110111 in the TAsunder database. Unlike the master bashing examples used in Bughouse Quiz 4, however, JKiller and PureBugger didn't actually lose this game -- it wound up a draw! So, I suppose this analysis is more of a "half-bashing".
Playing the White pieces, JKiller certainly has a strong piece drop in 1. N@g5+!, which he played. Since his opponent is behind on the clock, he is forced to play 1...Kh6. Now JKiller has immediate mate if his partner can get him a knight, so it is worth his while to sit for a moment to see what his partner can do. (His partner's lead on the clock is 50 seconds - that certainly seems like enough time to figure something out.)
On PureBugger's board, that White knight on e4 sure looks vulnerable to attack. Let's see... a queen drop somewhere should trap it - yeah, that's it, play 1...Q@d4.
Hold it, though, here's maybe a better idea - threaten the knight to set up your own mate. Yeah, that's it, play 1...Nh4, and if the knight moves anywhere, force mate by 2...N@h3+! 3. Kh1 (or 3. gxh3 Q@g2mate) Q@g1+! 4. Rxg1 Nxf2mate. No, wait, maybe a nicer finish is 1...B@d5 2. Nany N@h3+ 3. Kh1 (3. gxh3 Q@g2mate) Q@g1+ 4. Rxg1 Nxf2mate.
PureBugger actually played 1...N@e2+, which is inferior because, um... no wait, actually that's good too, because after 2. Kh1 Nfg3+! still traps the knight. I wonder, though, if PureBugger played that move because JKiller asked him for a bishop. Let's see... if JKiller gets a bishop, then, um... oh, now I see it: 2. Q@h7+! Kxg5 (not 2...Rxh7 3. Nf7mate!) 3. B@e7+! any@f6 4. Nh3mate!. Nice one, JKiller!
So anyway, let's see what happened. Hmm... PureBugger played 2...B@h3?! And JKiller
continued 2. Nf7+ Kh7 3. Ng5+ Kh6 4. Nf7+ Kh7 5. Ng5+ Kh6 and then he and pminear
agreed to - a draw?? Boy, I'll tell ya, sometimes these sophisticated master
strategies mystify me. (Hey, lighten up, guys. Where's that Christmas spirit?)
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#9
If the position for this last puzzle looks like one of your typical games, well, excuse me for saying this, but perhaps you and your partner need to tone down your penchant for sacrificial orgies. No doubt you wound up in this position because you both embarked on wild sacrificial attacks that failed. Part of the reason your attacks failed was that, with both of you charging forward like runaway trains, neither one took the time to feed the other. Now your team is down a ton of material, with no pieces left to drop. Your opponents think you are so dead, in fact, they send out a channel tell that reads, "Hey, partner, let's see if we can beat them by stripping them both down to their bare kings!"
Well, you and your partner aren't ready to concede this one just yet - you've had so much practice playing bad positions, you've gotten pretty good at snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. So the two of you, comforted somewhat in seeing that at least you are 30 seconds ahead on the clocks, look around for a cheapo, something that your obnoxious opponents might overlook in their blatant overconfidence.
You, the White player, look over your position for a few seconds and decide you have nothing. Since your partner obviously can't feed you more than a knight, your mating chances are nil, and now your opponent is moving in for the kill. You decide it would be futile to try to defend this, so you are going to feed what you can to your partner.
You see that you can get your partner two pieces. You're not sure which two to give him just yet, but a knight looks like it would be useful to your partner, so you start with 1. Qh7+! Nxh7 2. Bxh7+ Kxh7.
Your partner now plays 1...N@h1+!, hoping for 2. Kg2??, when your partner has immediate mate if you then capture a queen, rook, or knight. Well, maybe it's unfortunate there are three ways to mate after 2. Kg2 -- sort of makes it too obvious. Your White opponent looks the position over for a few seconds, then plays 2. Ke3.
Never one to give up easily, you take one last look at the position before clicking on the Resigns button, and that's when the flash of brilliance hits you. You play 3. Bxf3!!, realizing you are mated in two. But that's okay, because your partner is still well ahead on his clock, and he has mate in seven: 2...N@g2+! 3. Ke4 Ng3+ 4. Kd5 Nf4+ 5. Kc5 Ne4+ 6. Kb4 Nd5+ 7. Kb3 Nc5+ 8. Kc2 Ne3mate or 8. Ka2 Nxc3mate.
Now, I am sure there are some buggers out there who think that no human with a mere 30 second time advantage would find 3. Bxf3. After all, 3. Bxf3 captures only a knight when a queen is there for the taking. With only 30 seconds to study the position, who would realize there is no mate with knight+queen, but two knights force mate in 8?
Oh, stop being so cynical. Of course it's possible.
It's Christmas. The season of miracles.
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And that concludes installment #5 in my bughouse quizzes.
For future bughouse quizzes, I would be more than happy to include
positions sent to me by other players. So, the next
you pull off a particularly clever and instructive bughouse mate and
you'd like to show the world your concept, send me the position and
solution in some decipherable form. If I like the idea, I'll include
it in a future quiz and give you proper credit!
Here's my E-mail.
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