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Dress Pr0n For the 'Ettes:

Longing for Spring... this 1837-40 dress is made from printed challis depicting wild strawberries growing up the skirt. According to the @V_and_A, technical improvements in both the dye and printing industries meant that imitating realistic floral designs became easier/cheaper. pic.twitter.com/KGCeUPsI7p

— whatgrandmawore (@whatgrandmawore) March 28, 2018

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Solutions Update

Easier Problem - White To Play

r1r3k1/pp3p1p/4bp1Q/7p/8/3B1P2/PPP5/1K1R4 w - - 0 1

Black's position has gaping holes. The question is, how best to exploit them. One try is:

1.Rg1+ Bg4
2.fxg4 h4
3.g5 f5
4.Bxf5 Rc4
5.Qxh7+ Kf8
6.Re1 Re4
7.Rxe4 f6
8.g6 h3
9.Qf7#

A win is a win, no question about it. But here is the fastest way to mate:

1.Bxh7+! Kh8

Now, that discovered check looks promising, but where to place the bishop?

2.Bf5+!

Otherwise, Black would be able to move his bishop to g4, thus closing off that open file and, from White's perspective, gumming up the works. In chess lingo, this is known as a "prophylactic" (really!) move.

2...Kg8
3.Rg1#

So the fastest is a mate in 3.

More Challenging Problem - White To Play

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Black is defending b7 with his queen. If it wasn't, White could play 1.Qb7# and the game would be over. So how can White exploit this?

1. Rc5!

There are a number of squares the black queen can skedaddle to, but three of them will result in quickie mates:

a) 1...Qd6 2.Qb7#
b) 1...Qd7 2.Qxb6+ Qb7 3.Qxb7#
c) 1...Qa8 2.Bxa8 Nxa8 3.Rxc8#

1...Qxg2 is an interesting try, but the result is the same:

2.Qxb6+ Qb7
3.Qd6+ Ka8
4.Ra5+ Qa7
5.Ree5 Bd8
6.Reb5 Bxa5
7.Qd5+ Rc6
8.Qxc6+ Qb7
9.Qxb7#

Black's best defense is actually:

1...Ne4

But then he has to continually give up material to stay alive:

2.Bxe4 Qxe4
3.Rxe4 Rxc5
4.Qxb6+ Kc8
5.Qxc5+

If you've reached this point, you can declare victory in having solved the puzzle; White's material advantage is so yuuge, the rest is just mopping up. But it will be mate in 7 more moves:

5...Kd7
6.Qxg5 f5
7.Qxf5+ Kc7 (if 7...Kc6 then 8.Re6+ Kd7 9.Qf7+ Kd8 10.Re8#)
8.Qf7+ Kb6
9.Qg6+ Kc7
10.Re7+ Kd8
11.Qe8#

Hope to see you all next week!

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Note: that cryptic line of letters and numbers you see underneath each board diagram is a representation of the position in what is known as "Forsyth-Edwards Notation", or F.E.N. It's actually readable by humans. Most computer applications nowadays can read FEN, so those of you who may want to study the position, you can copy the line of FEN and paste into your chess app and it should automatically recreate the position on its display board. Or, Windows users can just "triple click" on it and the entire line will be highlighted so you can copy and past it into your chess app.

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So that about wraps it up for this week. Chess thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to my yahoo address: OregonMuse little-a-in-a-circle yahoo dott com.

posted by OregonMuse at 05:01 PM

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