There is a long story somewhere(matplus forum?) about the von Broecker problem – an argentinian composer had discovered the same position later and was heartbroken when shown the anticipation.
There is a 1933 version using R lines(by V.Hadac). And I did a Nightrider version on cylinder board in the 1980s. A Rose version was waiting to be composed!
Georgy Evseev
March 24, 2018 13:32
Unfortunately, neither Hadac problem nor Shankar Ram problem are available from WinChloe. I have found only two R versions there (from 1985 and from 2014), though there may be others also. There is only one Shankar Ram problem that may be of this category (Feenschach 1986), but it is marked as cooked and no solution is shown.
Concerning my original comment, I have found some interesting potential in the position, but unfortunately there are triangulation possibilities for the white queen around a8 corner, so in the end I failed to improve author’s setting in any way.
shankar ram
March 25, 2018 09:24
Here’s the matplus forum thread discussing the von Broecker problem.. http://matplus.net/start.php?px=1521957735&app=forum&act=posts&tid=57&fid=xshows&page=0
It also has the Hadac version..
And.. a self anticipation of Paul’s present problem in ‘The Problemist’, 1997!
Looks like He forgot about the earlier publication… It happens…
As regards my version with Ns (feenschach, 1986), the intended solution is: 1.Rd2,Ng7 2.Rd1,Na8 3.Rd8,Nc1 4.Rd7,Ne2 5.Rd4,Nc1 6.Ne2,Na8 7.Nc1,Ng7 8.Na8,Ne6 9.Ng7,e3 10.Ng3+,Nxg3#
Winchloe signals cooks in 9 moves. I’ll see if it can be fixed…
WinChloe shows what is tends to be called “Vladimirov-style cook” in Russia (meaning Jakov Vladimirov, who often reminded about this possibility in long selfmates). White capture all “movable” black pieces and then force mate with last remaining one or some pawn.
In WinChloe cooks white capture black N and then force easy mate from b5. (I did not check , how they limit the freedom of BK.) It may be enough to put WSa3 instead of pawn, though the check will take some time.
Thanks, Shankar, for reminder me those discussions from the matplus forum! Actually, this s#8 is a correction of a demolished s#12, published in The Problemist 1997, as you already noted. So, take please this sound version as an hors concours work. Almost, it provoked animated comments. BTW, I knew your version on a cylinder, feenschach 1986, which was my source of inspiration. Maybe you’ll still be able to fix it …
In fact, this is classic “mutual pin” selfmate – traditional setting includes two bishops along the long diagonal.
Concept is based on mutual zugzwang and the square on thematic line which may be controlled depends on the distance between the pinned units.
The new part of the problem is the use of white queen which has half of the board at the disposal but makes ragged (at the first glance) moves.
I would have changed the key, if possible, so that the queen does not guard e2 initially, even if this will to the loss of some tries.
Georgy is refering to this problem: http://www.yacpdb.org/#68127
Here also, the rook guards g2 in the diagram.
There is a long story somewhere(matplus forum?) about the von Broecker problem – an argentinian composer had discovered the same position later and was heartbroken when shown the anticipation.
There is a 1933 version using R lines(by V.Hadac). And I did a Nightrider version on cylinder board in the 1980s. A Rose version was waiting to be composed!
Unfortunately, neither Hadac problem nor Shankar Ram problem are available from WinChloe. I have found only two R versions there (from 1985 and from 2014), though there may be others also. There is only one Shankar Ram problem that may be of this category (Feenschach 1986), but it is marked as cooked and no solution is shown.
Concerning my original comment, I have found some interesting potential in the position, but unfortunately there are triangulation possibilities for the white queen around a8 corner, so in the end I failed to improve author’s setting in any way.
Here’s the matplus forum thread discussing the von Broecker problem..
http://matplus.net/start.php?px=1521957735&app=forum&act=posts&tid=57&fid=xshows&page=0
It also has the Hadac version..
And.. a self anticipation of Paul’s present problem in ‘The Problemist’, 1997!
Looks like He forgot about the earlier publication… It happens…
As regards my version with Ns (feenschach, 1986), the intended solution is: 1.Rd2,Ng7 2.Rd1,Na8 3.Rd8,Nc1 4.Rd7,Ne2 5.Rd4,Nc1 6.Ne2,Na8 7.Nc1,Ng7 8.Na8,Ne6 9.Ng7,e3 10.Ng3+,Nxg3#
Winchloe signals cooks in 9 moves. I’ll see if it can be fixed…
WinChloe shows what is tends to be called “Vladimirov-style cook” in Russia (meaning Jakov Vladimirov, who often reminded about this possibility in long selfmates). White capture all “movable” black pieces and then force mate with last remaining one or some pawn.
In WinChloe cooks white capture black N and then force easy mate from b5. (I did not check , how they limit the freedom of BK.) It may be enough to put WSa3 instead of pawn, though the check will take some time.
With WSa3 there are no 9-move solutions, but still cooked with 1.Rd4 NTe2 2.Rxe4! Kd6 3.NTxe2.
Thanks, Shankar, for reminder me those discussions from the matplus forum! Actually, this s#8 is a correction of a demolished s#12, published in The Problemist 1997, as you already noted. So, take please this sound version as an hors concours work. Almost, it provoked animated comments. BTW, I knew your version on a cylinder, feenschach 1986, which was my source of inspiration. Maybe you’ll still be able to fix it …