8/8/3b2K1/2B5/7k/8/5N2/7N w - - 0 1

Dress Pr0n For The 'Ettes:

WWII bomber airplane print 1940s dress with loop fringe, Dorothea's Closet Vintage archives. See more photos here: https://t.co/7ZC11h60M2 pic.twitter.com/PBXNYvz5NF

— History Lovers Club (@historylvrsclub) May 18, 2019

(click for bigger mad men)

Greetings from Latvia

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Solutions Update

Easier Problem - To Play

5rk1/1ppq4/n2p3p/p2Pp1bB/2P4N/P1N2RPb/1PQ5/6K1 w - - 0 1

1.Qg6+ Qg7

Or 1...Kh8 2.Rxf8#

2.Rxf8+ Kxf8

This sacrfice eliminates the back rank defender. And now:

3.Qe8#

More Challenging Problem - White To Play

8/8/3b2K1/2B5/7k/8/5N2/7N w - - 0 1

Before I worked through this problem, I thought that two knights can checkmate is if the king is in a corner, and even then, the position can't be forced. But with the bishops still on the board, the strategic situation is completely different.

Looking at the position, I saw that if I could get the White bishop to the d8-h4 diagonal, it would be mate. Of course, this is not possible, for Black could just move his bishop along the b7-h2 diagonal and block me wherever I went. And I can't just take the Black bishop because stalemate.

So I started looking at knight moves, which is how I found:

1.Ng3!

Because I saw that if 1...Bxc5 then 2.Nf5#. Also, if 1...Bxg3 then 2.Be7#. And 1...Bc7 results in 2.Nf5#. I was surprised to see these checkmates by two knights against a king that has not been driven into a corner square. I didn't think that was possible.

So the only move that Black really has is

1...Kxg3

And this allows White to close out the game with a knight fork:

2.Ne4+ Kf3
3.Nxd6 and with correct play, White will eventually win.

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 05:19 PM

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