The winners of the New In Chess/Huffington Post chess contest are:
1. Roberto Alvares, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. Jan Kalendovsky, Brno, The Czech Republic
3. Michal Holes, The Czech Republic
They will receive one year subscription to the New In Chess magazine.
The solutions are shown below.
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The contest was done in cooperation with New In Chess. It consisted of three parts: a trivia question, a chess study and a chess problem.
These were the tasks:
Try to solve all three puzzles and you may win one-year subscription to the excellent New In Chess magazine.
There is also a bonus puzzle that may improve your chances of being among the three winners. You will have until June 21 to e-mail your solution to: nic.huffpost@newinchess.com
TRIVIA
He predicted the opponent and the outcome with these words: "It will by Short and it will be short." He also likes the movies Casablanca, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Godfather. Who is this grandmaster?
ANSWER: Garry Kasparov
One of Kasparov's favorite movies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, was screened on June 20 at New York's Bryant Park in front of 10,500 moviegoers. The film director Milos Forman opened the evening.
STUDY
White plays and wins
SOLUTION:
The position is from the game Healy,John - Kaas,E.,
Simultaneous display, Simpson's, 2009
1.Ne5! The only way to win! The white knight doesn't allow the black king the pick up the h-pawn. Black is in zugzwang: any king's move allows 2.h7 and white queens.
Other moves don't win, for example: 1.Nf4 Kf7 2.Kb2 Kg8 followed by 3...Kh7, draws;
1.Kb2 Kg6 draws as well.
The puzzle is from John Healy's book Coffeehouse Chess Tactics. The author of the powerful autobiography The Grass Arena pays a tribute to chess, a game that changed his life.
PROBLEM
White plays and mates in three moves
SOLUTION:
Karl Behting's splendid three-mover was published in the Deutsche Schachzeitung in 1893.
The Latvian chess composer was a strong master who participated in the first chess olympiad in Paris in 1924. He also devoted lot of time analyzing the Latvian gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5). The composition begins with a remarkable bishop sacrifice, a quiet introduction to beautiful mates.
1.Bg4!! fxg4 2.Rh2 Kf3 [2...f3 3.Qc7#] 3.Qd3 mate.
Or 1...f3 2.Qh2+ Kxg4 3.Qh4 mate;
or 1...Kxg4 2.Rh3 f3 (2...Kg5 3.Qg7 mate) 3.Qh4 mate;
or 1...Kf2 2.Qa7+ Kg3 3.Qg1 mate.
BONUS PUZZLE
White plays and can force a win. Can you find how?
SOLUTION:
1.Rc7! Rxc7 2.Bxc7 Kxh6 (2...Bg6 3.Kg7 followed by 4.h7, wins.) 3.Bf4+ Kg6 4.Bc1 f4 5.Bxf4 Zugzwang. White wins the black bishop and the game. The puzzle is from Mihai Suba's masterpiece Dynamic Chess Strategy.
New In Chess is the premier chess magazine in the world. Subscribers in 97 countries receive 8 issues a year with more than 850 pages of chess delight: on-site tournament reports from all over the world, annotations by top grandmasters such as the world champion Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura (and dozens of others), in-depth interviews, opening surprises, personal essays, full color pictures, honest book and dvd reviews, juicy gossip and Garry Kasparov's exclusive column.