A Circe Chess problem - 2

Stefanos Pantazis, editor of The US Problem Bulletin, has sent me two problems that appeared in that journal and did win a prize there.

This is the solution of the second problem: You can also look at the first problem: a series selfmate in 17 moves.

This problem was composed by Michel Caillaud, was published in The US Problem Bulletin in 1994, and won a First Prize.

White:
King c8; Bishop d4; Pawn b4, d7, e5, e7, f4, f7, h4, h7.

Black:
King a3; Rook f6, f8; Knight e8, g7; Bishop h8; Pawn b2, d2, e6, f5, h5.

Circe. h=4: Helpstalemate in four moves.

(b) Move the black king from a3 to a4, and solve the problem again.

Solution

= means promotion, e.g. 1.b1=B means that a black pawn promotes to a bishop; + means a check; rebirths are written between brackets, e.g., (Ng8) denotes a knight being reborn on g8. Turns are denoted as first the move of black, and then the move of white.

Solution of part (a)

1. b1= B, d x e8 (Ng8).
2. B a2, h x g8=Q.
3. R x g8 (Q d1), f8=R.
4. fR x f8 (Ra1), e x f8=B mate.

Solution of part (b)

1. Kb5, d x e8=B+ (Ng8)
2. K a6, hxg8=N
3. R x g8 (N b1), f8=Q
4. fR x f8 (Q d1), e x f8=R mate.

Remark

Note the nice pattern for the different types of promotions in the two parts of the problem: in each part, we see each of the four types of promotions, and the sequence in (a) differs from the sequence in (b) with a cyclic shift.

Written by Hans Bodlaender; with thanks to Stefanos Pantazis.

WWW page created: January 6, 1997. Last modified: January 14, 1997.