k1K5/5p2/8/6p1/6P1/8/8/8 w - - 0 1

Dress Pr0n For The 'Ettes:

I am delighted to have been part of the early conversations around creating a network of #19thc dress and textile historians to further scholarship of the period. Follow @c19thdress for more info. This late 1870s dress @metmuseum #fashionhistory pic.twitter.com/I256fa4RrM

— Dr Kate Strasdin (@kateStrasdin) June 13, 2019

(click for larger view)

(click for larger view)

(Greetings from Ukraine)

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Solutions Update

Easier Problem - Black To Play

1r4k1/p3p1bp/2p3p1/1rNn1p2/8/2P2P1N/KP2RQPP/3R4 b - - 0 1

1...Nxc3+ 2.bxc3

Or 2.Ka1 Ra5+ 3.Na4 Rxa4#

2...Ra5+
3.a4 Rxa4# 0-1

More Challenging Problem - White To Play

k1K5/5p2/8/6p1/6P1/8/8/8 w - - 0 1

Now, you may think oh, this is easy, all White has to do is backpedal his king to the other side of the board and scoop up those pawns.

Ha ha, not so. Let's see what happens if he tries that:

1.Kd8 Kb7 (not Kb8 - this will become clear in a bit)

2.Ke7 f5 3.gxf5 g4 and now we have a pawn race.

4.f6 g3 5.f7 g2 6.f8=Q g1=Q and the game is a draw. Note that if Black kept his king on the back rank, White would have queened with check, which would have given him enough time to pick up the other pawn. So that's why Black had to first move Kb7, not Kb8.

So, the point is. White needs to proceed very carefully to keep Black from immediately pushing his pawn to f5.

1.Kc7 Ka7

Black cannot yet launch his pawn: 1...f5 2.gxf5 g4 3.f6 g3 4.f7 g2 5.f8=Q+ Ka7 6.Qf2+ Ka8 7.Qxg2+ and wins.

2.Kc6

But White cannot yet go for the pawns. If now 2.Kd6 then 2...f5 and the pawn race will be a draw.

2...Ka6

Because 2...f5 3.gxf5 g4 4.f6 g3 5.f7 g2 6.f8=Q g1=Q 7.Qa3+ Kb8 8.Qb4+ Kc8 9.Qf8#

3. Kd5

And now White can go get the pawns. His King is centralized enough so that ...f5 won't be a problem, i.e. 3...f5 4.gxf5 g4 5.Ke4 g3 6.Kf3 g2 7.Kxg2 and Black is too far away to stop the f pawn.

3...Kb5
4.Ke5 Kc5
5.Kf6 Kd4
6.Kxf7 Ke3
7.Kg6 Kf4
8.Kh5 Ke5
9.Kxg5 Ke5
10.Kg6 and wins

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 05:11 PM

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