Julia’s Fairies 1st RIGA BLACK BALSAM TT

RigasBalzams-BlackCurrant Julia’s Fairies is pleased to announce its composing tournament within the
58^th World Congress of Chess Composition

1^st RIGA BLACK BALSAM TT

Judge: Julia Vysotska

Theme: Help-play with Half-neutral pieces. Thematic play of half-neutral pieces in H#/=/==, HS#/=/== problems in 2-5 moves; Ser-H#/=/==, Ser-HS#/=/== problems up to 10 moves. Other fairy pieces (also standard neutral pieces) are allowed. Fairy conditions are NOT allowed.

Depending on the number of entries the tournament will either have one section for all problems, or will be split in two sections: Section A (H#/=/==, Ser-H#/=/==) and Section B (HS#/=/==, Ser-HS#/=/==).

Computer tested problems only! Half-neutral pieces are fully implemented in the last version of Popeye and also most of problems can be tested by WinChloe, except half-neutral King (and Royal piece).

Please send entries to Julia Vysotska by e-mail at julia@juliasfairies.com until July, 31^st, 2015
or during the Congress, for participants only, until 17:00 of August, 3^rd, 2015.

Prizes are bottles of RIGA BLACK BALSAM Currant.
The tourney is open worldwide, however the prizes are for congress participants only.

Half-neutral piece: Piece which can exist in black, white or neutral state and changes its state by the rules:

A piece in the neutral state may be moved by Black or White, and after move it changes into black or white state respectively.
A piece in the white state may be moved only by White, and after move it changes into its neutral state.
A piece in the black state may be moved only by Black, and after move it changes into its neutral state.
Only a half-neutral pawn can promote into half-neutral figure.

Additional features of half-neutral pieces:

Castling with half-neutral King is possible with hK in white phase on e1 (White castling) and hK in black phase on e8 (Black castling). After castling the hK becomes half-neutral phase and can become mate.
A play is possible also with only one half-neutral King on the board (in white, black or neutral phase).
By the notation: “h”=half-neutral piece, states are marked with “w”(white), “b”(black) and “n”(neutral).

See Examples with animated solutions below or use PDF file with the announcement & examples to print out.

Welcome to participate! – Julia

Examples

No.1 SCHEME	No.2 SCHEME	No.3 SCHEME
h#1 3 solutions (4+3) Half-neutral Pa2 Grasshopper b8	h#2 2 solutions (1+4) Half-neutral Rg3, Be6	h#2 (5+4) Half-neutral Pe2, Sh4
*** 1.a1=nhS hSb3 [b3=w]# 1.a1=nhB hBc3 [c3=w]# 1.a1=nhG hGe5 [e5=w]#	*** 1.hRg1=nhR hRa1 [a1=w]+ 2.hBa2=nhB hBd5 [d5=w]# 1.hBh3=nhB hBg2 [g2=w]+ 2.hRf3=nhR hRa3 [a3=w]#	*** 1.e1=nhS hSf5=nhS+ 2.hSd4 [d4=b] hSg2 [g2=w]# 1.e1=nhB hSg2=nhS+ 2.hSf4 [f4=b] hBf2 [f2=w]#

No.4 Vlaicu Crisan Ded. to L. Riguet Phenix 2000 1st Hon.men.	No.5 Petko A. PETKOV feenschach 2001	No.6 SCHEME
ser-h#4 (1+4) Half-neutral Re3, Bd6	ser-h#6* 2 solutions (4+1+1) Half-neutral Pb7	ser-h#8 (2+3+1) Half-neutral Royal Ph7 Chameleon Bc7
*** 1.Sc3 2.hRh3=nhR 3.hBg3=nhB 4.Sa4 hBd6 [d6=w]# 1.Sc5 2.hBf8=nhB 3.hRe7=nhR 4.Sa4 hRe3 [e3=w]#	*** 1...b8=whS [b8=w]# 1.b5 [b5=b] 2.b4=nhP 3.b3 [b3=b] 4.b2=nhP 5.b1=bhB [b1=b] 6.hBg6=nhB hBe8 [e8=w]# 1.b6 [b6=b] 2.b5=nhP 3.b4 [b4=b] 4.b3=nhP 5.b2 [b2=b] 6.b1=nhQ+ hQb7 [b7=w]#	*** 1.h6 [h6=b] 2.h5=nhP 3.h4 [h4=b] 4.h3=nhP 5.h2 [h2=b] 6.h1=nrchR 7.nrchRh8=brchQ [h8=b] 8.rchQa8=nrchS b7#

No.7 SCHEME	No.8 SCHEME	No.9 Julia Vysotska StateGems No.71, FB1479
hs#2 2 solutions (4+4+2) Half-neutral Pd7, Qe5, Re6	hs#4 (3+7) Half-neutral Bc8	hs#2* (1+6+3) Half-neutral Ne1, Qc3, Be3
*** 1.d8=nhS hQh8 [h8=b] 2.hRxc6 [c6=w]+ hSxc6 [c6=b]# 1.d8=nhB hRe8 [e8=b] 2.hQxc7 [c7=w]+ hBxc7 [c7=b]#	*** 1.Qh2 hBd7=nhB 2.Qb8 hBb5 [b5=b] 3.Qd8 hBe8=nhB 4.Qd6+ hBc6 [c6=b]#	*** 1...hBg5 [g5=b] 2.hQf3 [f3=w]+ hNxf3 [f3=b]# 1.hBc1 [c1=w] nBe6 2.hNd3 [d3=w]+ hQxd3 [d3=b]#

No.10 SCHEME	No.11 SCHEME	No.12 SCHEME
h#2 2 solutions (2+5) Half-neutral Ke6	hs=2 2 solutions (2+1) b) Pf4→h3; c) Pf4→e4 Half-neutral Kc7, Qf3	h#1,5 b) rhSd2→d1 (3+0) Half-neutral Royal Sd2
*** 1.hKd5=nhK+ hKd4 [d4=w] 2.Bb3 hKc3=nhK# 1.hKf7=nhK+ hKg7 [g7=w] 2.Bh7 hKh8=nhK#	*** a) 1.hKc8=nhK hQxf4=nhQ 2.hQc7 [c7=w]+ hKxc7 [c7=b] = b) 1.hKd8=nhK hQxh3=nhQ 2.hQd7 [d7=w]+ hKxd7 [d7=b] = c) 1.hKb8=nhK hQxe4=nhQ 2.hQb7 [b7=w]+ hKxb7 [b7=b] =	*** a) 1...rhSb3=nhS+ 2.nrhSa1=bB d4# b) 1...rhSf2=nhS+ 2.nrhSh3=bB d7#

Animated diagrams use Py2Web by Dmitri Turevski and WinChloe’s graphics.

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seetharaman

June 18, 2015 08:16

Half-netural king is very interesting !

Juraj Lörinc

June 22, 2015 01:25

Scheme No 11 has one solution in each twin only.
It can be easily developed into position with three solutions (e.g. whnKf3 – bhnQc7, bPc6, cPd6), although as Julia rightly points above most diagram’s, these are mostly just schemes showing some possibilities. It will require a lot of creativity to finish among prizes, I guess.

June 25, 2015 16:46

Scheme 7 is very good. Dont know why the author does not want to own it ?

Nikola Predrag

June 26, 2015 01:48

Reply to seetharaman

The purpose of that scheme is to illustrate the properties of the Halfneutrals using a well known content. The authors are expected to create something original with these properties.

And bSc6/bBc7 are poorly used in the mates.
They could at least guard a flight, for instance:
White halfneutral Pd7; Neutral halfneutral Rh6; Neutral halfneutral Qc3
White Ka8 Sa5 Sd5 Pb4; Black Ba6 Kb5 Pa4
Stipulation Hs#2
1.hPd7-d8=hS=nh nhRh6-h8=bh 2.nhQc3-c6=wh+ nhSd8*c6=bh #
1.hPd7-d8=hB=nh nhQc3-h8=bh 2.nhRh6-b6=wh+ nhBd8*b6=bh #

Julia

June 27, 2015 17:31

I’d like to turn your attention to the fact that halfneutral is a property (or behavior), but not a color. So, in Popeye notation you should mention a color of your halfneutral piece first. Like, for scheme 11 the Pieces in Popeye are:
white pf4 white halfneutral Kc7 black halfneutral Qf3