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© A.J. Goldsby, 2015.
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Solve
my problems. Plus I will eventually have links to many pages where you
can solve some of the best chess problems posted on the Internet.
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Click
HERE
to go to {another} on-line puzzle collection!
(A new 10 puzzle set.)
A problem page!! Keep watching this page for some chess problems. I will start off with a few of my own, then I will eventually move on to some of the better ones I have seen.
I am not going to post the solutions to the problems. (Not always true. The latest [May 2001] problems will have the solutions available. But you will have to be very attentive to the details to find it.) If you send me an e-mail, I may send you the answer. Then again, I may not!! (The REAL fun of a problem is figuring out all the different variations.) If you get desperate, you could always resort to the cheap tactic of letting your computer solve the problem for you. But this is not honorable in my book. (I also may bury the answers on one of my other web-sites.)
Here is a cute little problem.
"White to move and mate in 2."
(by A.J. Goldsby I)
[White is moving up from the bottom of the diagram.]
NO FAIR using a computer!! Be honest and see how long it takes you to solve this one WITHOUT any help!
(A fun little problem with lots of false tries. It was composed to blow the mind of a "professional" problem solver. I only slightly modified this problem from the form it took that I gave it as a teen-ager.)
Here is one of my best {composed} endgames.
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"White to move and win."
(by A.J. Goldsby I)
(This
is a nice endgame that was actually published in Chess Life
a few years ago.
[In Pal Benko's column.] ) This is easily one of the best endgames I have ever
composed. It has the slight drawback of having a minor "dual" in the solution. I
prefer to view it as a "mirror variation." (All problem solver's terms. I have
about 50 books devoted to chess problems.)
This is NOT a, "White to move and mate in x." Instead, if you can reach an easy win, or a position that is known to theory, (As a forced win for White or Black; or a known "Book" draw.); you may stop. Not an easy position, there are many twists and turns to this one Again, no fair using a computer. Use the old brain instead. You might get days of fun out of this one.
(One of my
former students worked on it for several months and never solved it.)
(I
have received literally dozens of e-mails from people who have
been perplexed by
this problem.)
WARNING:
Many composed endgames solutions can run 10 to 15 moves deep ... or
more!
(See Benko's column in Chess Life for more details.)
Here is a cool problem WITH a funny story behind it!
"White to move and Mate in 2."
(by Alain White)
1st
Prize, Seventh Merideth (Composing) Tourney;
"Good Companions"
May, 1918
(See the story below.)
A somewhat funny story about problem composition is: I once tried to "merge" two separate positions I saw, side-by-side, at my local chess club. (Mid 1980's.) I spent weeks, if not months working on the problem. I was like a man possessed. I moved the pieces, (seemingly in an endless parade); around on the chess board in an attempt to gain the maximum position. I added pieces, then eliminated them. I would wake in the middle of the night, and be driven to the chess-board to try another position - to try ... just ... one ... more ... time. Just once more! Again, and again ... I feverishly repeated my efforts. (I even swore off chess once, or twice - - - during this ordeal. I even called in sick to work, [more than once!]; just to have a whole day to work on the problem!!) [I even read several books on problem composition, in an effort to gain some insight into this perplexing puzzle.] Eventually I came up with the EXACT same problem as above, with maybe one or two minor differences. (I know my White Rook was on g2, not h2. If that is even relevant.) I even showed the results to my friend Rick Frye. (And others.) I spent more than an hour explaining some of the reasons for the positioning of each piece and showing off the cute variations and false tries!!
I sent my problem into a chess magazine, EXTREMELY proud of what I had accomplished. They (some time later) wrote back a very snotty letter, accusing me of trying to rip off, "a well-known problem." (This is known, in the Problem - Composing arena, as being "ANTICIPATED." I would have given it an entirely different name!! - *&%*%$@@$!) I pretty much gave up problem-composing after that. (My hair is thinning somewhat today. I blame it mostly on the vain effort that went into that one problem!!!)
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Another funny story involves a chess puzzle competition sponsored by Chess Life and GM Pal Benko. Pal Benko had created a new field of problems called help-not-mate, or "mate-nots." I still have the postcard, dated Oct. 13th, 1976, (!!!) from Pal Benko. (A postcard cost 9 cents then.) (I had sent a long letter to him, submitting many of my problems. I sent a "Mate-Not" in like 7 or 8 moves. I also told him I was working on an idea for a mate-not in like 20 moves.) He eventually replied, but many weeks later. He pointed out that, "my mate-in-8 was full of cooks. My mate-in-3 was nice, but many of the pieces were not necessary to the final position." He said, "Best is the MATE-NOT, but on R6 there should be a White Pawn - otherwise it is cooked. For the next year's contest, (Mate-Not without a move limit), send it in. So far, the longest what I could make is a 12-mover. Good work! Try again. Best luck for you."
- GM Pal Benko.
[I have since lost both my "Mate-Not" in two and all the other problems also.]
I lost a warehouse full of possessions about 5 -10 years back. It was a tragedy, as many of my families' pictures were in there. Many things that could not be replaced. One of the things I regret losing was dozens of little black, 3-ring-binder, notebooks. They were full of chess stuff and ideas I had accumulated over the years. I had about 10-20 of them full of just chess problems. For instance, I tried to surprise my friend J. Scott Pfeiffer with some "letter-problems" to celebrate one of his birthdays when he lived in Pensacola. (Three problems that are in the exact shape, [more-or-less], of the letters, "J," "S," and "P.") I showed the "P" to a Danish problem composer when I was stationed in Iceland. He helped me perfect it over the course of several months. (We met several times, face-to-face. We also corresponded the entire time I was in Iceland. He spoke good English. This was good, as I spoke little or no Danish.) Now all that work is lost, maybe forever. A pity. (!)
White to move and mate in three (3) moves.
(Can you solve this?)
White to move and mate in three moves.
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EUGENE B. COOK
Illustrated London (Daily) News
January 6th, 1855
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Can
you figure this one out?
I will let you in on a little secret. Its not as easy as you
might think.
(I have stumped Masters with this one!!)
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The solution is near, but you will have to be very attentive to the details to find it!!
Just so you know, the following was required to bring you the above problem:
-
. I had to hunt through my books for over a week, to find a problem I thought was worthy.
(I wanted it to be a problem that was a little unusual,
and hopefully one you may not have seen before!) -
. I had to enter it into ChessBase. This took at least 30 minutes to 1 hour.
(Plus I let the computer run on the problem for over 45 minutes - while I was eating -
to insure that it was sound and did not contain any "cooks.") -
. I had to use the "Output" function of CB and fiddle repeatedly with the controls
to get a file that I felt was close to what I wanted. This took several hours. -
. Then I had to alter the programming and the code to get it close to what I wanted.
This took over 20 hours, mainly because I am only a novice at java script.
(I am also a craftsman who demands that every web
page be akin to something of a work of art.)
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All this for just ONE PROBLEM!
But if one person truly enjoys it, then it would be worth it to me.
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A chess problem
A chess problem, White to move and mate in three. (Model mates!)
By: Y.G. Vladimirov. (1st Prize, Kubbel Tourney; 1991.) (Added here, Oct. 02, 2004.)
From
the book, << Chess Wizardry, The
New ABC of Chess Problems. >>
By John Rice. Published by
ICE/American Batsford. Copyright © 1996, by the author.
"Polished Off"
I recently (May, 2006) was doing a chess lesson with one of my students. We happened across the problem - given below. I enjoyed it so much that I thought I would add it to my modest collection. (Beware of false tries!)
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A chess problem, White to move and mate in two.
- G. Heathcote. First Prize, "The English Mechanic," 1891. (!!!!!)
See the book, "Advanced Chess Problems," (and how to solve them); by B.P. Barnes.
(My try at) "The Four Corners of the World"
Monday; August 24th, 2009: The following is just a little problem that I created. I have many books on problems and problem composition, however, this is NOT my main area of expertise! (Please accept my apologies - in advance - if this problem has been "anticipated" by anyone. I did look through a few of my books, I did not see anything remotely like it. To be completely honest, I am not even sure if this is a problem ... or a composed endgame.) (I had been thinking about posting this problem to my website {for some time}, however, I just never got around to it. A few days ago, a fan {in an e-mail} asked me about any of my recent creations in the chess problem field. This is the last serious bit of work - in the area of chess problems - that I have done. I spent several days setting up positions on the chessboard ... and then checking them on the computer ... before I obtained the problem given below.)
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8/8/q7/4kp2/8/4K2Q/B6P/8; White to move.
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Chess Problem # 1.1
(created at My house); Pensacola, FL / 22,07,2008.
[by A.J. Goldsby I]
White to move and win ... ... ... or White to move and mate?
I had a dream one night in June, 2008. In this dream, I saw a WQ visit all four corners of the board, each time the White Queen moved, it was with a devastating threat.
However, when I went to set this problem up on my chess set, I could not even begin to duplicate the feats of the WQ in my imaginary problem. (This example was the closest thing that I could get.) ---> Recorded on my computer: Tuesday; July 22nd, 2008.
1.Qh8+!
Qf6[]; (Forced, or "box.")
Black must play this way or lose the Queen.
[ Even worse would have been: </= 1...Kd6?; 2.Qf6+, (skewer) and now 2...K-any; then simply White plays 3.QxQ/a6, and White wins. "+/-" ]
2.Qb8+! Qd6T;
(T = "Box" or '[]' here.)
This is Black's only legal move! (The same holds true for Black's next move as well.)
3.Qb2+ Qd4+T;
4.Qxd4# .
I am not even sure if this qualifies as a problem ... or an endgame.
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8/8/8/4kp2/3Q4/4K3/B6P/8
Copyright (c) A.J. Goldsby, 2008. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) A.J. Goldsby, 2009. All rights reserved.
1 - 0
A new problem! (Added: Sunday; April 29th, 2012.)
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![[ 5q1N/1N2p2p/2P1kP1R/6K1/2P2P2/B7/8/1b6 w - - 0 1 (White to move - & mate in three moves.) [problem__Golds_o-p_Apr-2012.jpg, 128 KB]](problem__Golds_o-p_Apr-2012.jpg)
Composed - April 28th, 2012
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White to move -- and mate in three moves.
(An original problem - by A.J. Goldsby I)
If you liked these, I will be bringing you more. Not just mine, but any of the best problems that I can find. If you want to solve more, click
Dec. 28th, 2005: Do you like "Help-mates?" (A helpmate is a problem where both sides work together to arrange an artistic checkmate.) If so, you will enjoy this CB selection of this type of a problem. Have fun, and enjoy. BTW, if you know of a page of helpmates, please send it to me.
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Thursday; February 26th, 2009: I have been working on a few problems again. (I may post some of these here later.)
---> One question: WHY ISN"T THERE A "CHESS PROBLEMS" DATABASE????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ...
Do you know how much time I could save ... if after I created a chess problem, the computer could analyze it and (not only find the cooks - Fritz can do this well enough now), but also inform me if this problem was similar to, or anticipated by anyone else's work? This is a much needed item!!!
See the Christmas Chess Problems (on the ChessBase website) for 2014. (Click here.)
Return to my home page. Go to my big page of chess problems.
Copyright (c) A.J. Goldsby I
Copyright (©) A.J. Goldsby, 1975-2014.
Copyright (©) A.J. Goldsby, 2015. All rights reserved.
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Page last checked/edited on: Monday, February 09, 2015 .