8/8/8/P7/3K4/1N6/4pk1p/7B w - - 0 1

Dress Pr0n For The 'Ettes:

Art meets fashion - a Jeanne Hallée 1907 evening dress from the @metmuseum. Art Nouveau and chinoiserie motifs are seen in the cloud pattern on the shoulders of this dress, which according to the museum, is stylised in the form of Manchu court dress. A varied blend of influence! pic.twitter.com/sVQTgP09aS

— whatgrandmawore (@whatgrandmawore) October 8, 2018

(click for larger view)

Greetings From Slovakia

(click for larger view)

Of course, in order to find photos of Melania with Argentina's first lady Juliana Awada, you have to go to the British press.

(h/t to publius for the link).

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Solutions Update

Easier Problem - Black To Play

k4r2/ppB5/8/1P1p2p1/6Qp/1P2P1nP/2PP1qPK/6R1 b - - 0 1

1...Qxg1+!

That rook needed to be gotten rid of. Now the checkmate can be executed by the rook supported by the knight.

2.Kxg1 Rf1+
3.Kh2 Rh1#

More Challenging Problem - White To Play

8/8/8/P7/3K4/1N6/4pk1p/7B w - - 0 1

1.Nc1

This stops the pawn. If now 1...e1Q?? then 2.Nd3+ wins with the fork.

1...Kg1

2. Nxe2+ Kxh1

And now Black can push his other pawn.

3.a6

The best. Trying to stop Black from queening his pawn is futile: 3.Ke3 Kg2 4.Nf4+ Kf1 5.Ne2 Kg2 6.Nf4+ Kf1 7.Ne2 Kg2, etc.

3...Kg2
4.a7 h1=Q
5.a8=Q+ Kh2

And this is where it gets tricky. White's strategy is to maneuver Black into having to stave off a mating threat by blocking with his queen on a square that is also covered by the knight.

6.Qb8+ Kg2
7.Qb7+ Kh2
8.Qh7+ Kg2
9.Qe4+ Kh2
10.Qh4+ Kg2
11.Nf4+

This is the key move. Black needs to go to g1 to protect hid queen. My chess app, seeing the approaching end, simply gave up: 11...Kf3 12.Qxh1+ Kxf4 13.Qh5 and wins.

But humans want to hold on to the queen:

11...Kg1
12.Qe1+ Kh2
13.Qf2+

And now we're at the critical position. Black's only move is to block.

13...Qg2
14.Qxg2#

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 paste 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 05:09 PM

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