The Two Best Problems From The 1933 Composed Chess Problem Competition – British Chess Foundation

The British Chess Foundation organized composed problem competitions from the years 1929 to 1979. In this video we look at 2 of the best Mate-In-3’s from the 1933 competition.

Timestamps
0:00 – Intro to the competitions
0:51 – Problem 1
5:56 – Problem 2

Problem 1 FEN:
k6K/1n3p2/1PB1p3/3p4/2p3P1/Pp6/p6B/Q7 w – – 0 1

Problem 2 FEN:
5k2/5B2/1PPp2K1/4pN2/3RR1PP/8/pppppp2/5rb1 w – – 0 1

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102 Comments

  1. The first puzzle, there is another move to win:Kg8

  2. I can't believe I solved these 2 puzzles and I think it has a lot to do with the fact of watching previous puzzles from Nelson. Hope u bring more of such in the future 🤍

  3. I love seeing you post more of these, but please try to find a source where the solutions are already given reliably :). In the second problem you completely missed the idea : After the key 1.Kf6, as you pointed out, there are 2 threats (Ng7 and Ne7) and all the queen promotions can only cover one of these threats so they are not actually defensive variants (a black defensive move must parry the threat of the previous whit move to generate a "variant" or "line" – not sure of the english word). Here the defensive black moves are all the rook moves, which all prevent both Ng7 and Ne7 because of f1Q+. But all of them have a default. Here is the solution with the tries (noted with a ? – a try means an attempt that can be refuted by only a single black move)and their refutation (noted with !), Then the key (noted with a !) and then the defensive variants where the 2nd white move is always one of the tries.

    Tries :
    1.Ra4? a1Q!
    1.b7? b1Q!
    1.c7? c1Q!
    1.Rxd6? d1Q!
    1.Rxe5? e1Q!

    Key (with the threats between parenthesis) :
    1.Kf6! (Ne7, Ng7)
    Variants (black defenses, which parry the threats, and white's unique winning answers) :
    1…Ra1 2.Ra4
    1…Rb1 2.b7
    1…Rc1 2.c7
    1…Rd1 2.Rxd6
    1…Re1 2.Rxe5
    Each black defense causes a damage by blocking one of the black pawns, which allows white to mate in the remaining 2 moves by playing the try that was refuted by the promotion of that pawn.

    Edit : "variation", not "variant" in english, sorry about that :). Also some of you may notice that for the tries, black can also promote in rook, which apparently means there are 2 black moves that parry the threats. But as a convention, in this case, the promotions in rook or queen are not considered as different moves and therefore the white moves are tries (it's also the case if the only black moves parrying the threat are promotions in queen or bishop).

  4. In puzzle1 : bishop to c7 still works because in next move queen can go to any back rank and it's mate… Why does it not work?

  5. 2. puzzle: rook to a4 followed by b7 should also to the trick or im missing something?

  6. Surely Kg8 does the job? Similar idea to Be6 and works just as well

  7. If you know which theme is this please comment

  8. The first problem has an alternative solution. Kg1, moving the king out of the eventual check of a1 and b1 Queen promotions. A pawn move is forced, and any pawn capture by the Queen can be immediately followed by an unstoppable Queen move to either the a file or the first rank. Fortunately, the knight is pinned.

  9. for the second one you have rook to d6 then e6 then e8

  10. 5:33 what stops black from promoting pawn and delaying mate enough?

  11. Two major misses here. As has been mentioned, the explanation of mate at 4:26 is incomplete because it's not the white queen that issues mate. Black queens his pawn and pins the white queen. Light square bishop issues mate by capturing the knight and protected by the queen.

    Then, at 5:31, it's correct that the dark square bishop's position is blocking mate, but not for the reason given. Again, the queen doesn't issue mate by capturing the knight. The queen could just as well issue mate by moving to the back rank. But, again, black queens the pawn on the a file and that white queen isn't going anywhere. Rather, the dark square bishop screws things up because it blocks the white queen from protecting the light square bishop's capturing of the knight.

  12. In the first puzzle, Kg7 actually ALMOST works

  13. In second puzzle we play Ra3 then black promotes we play Nh6 and black takes a3 rook with queen and we take back with other rook then Ra8 absolutely unstoppable
    EDIT: not rook a3 it's a4 really sorry

  14. 7:08

    Move the rook on d4 to c4. This blocks the dark queen while also being protected by the other rook

  15. But in the second puzzle, what happening if black move the rook abd do a queen with F2 ?

  16. I wasn't able to figure out the first one, but surprisingly got the second one. Thanks for the great puzzles!

  17. But the 2nd possision was illigal. I get the point but was completely illigal

  18. 9:38 black can promote a pawn to queen then ng7 and then black's Qa7 delaying mate

  19. 5:22 you can still move the queen one square up though?? Thats still checkmate

  20. The g7 on problem 1 is wrong because a1 promote to queen ruin your plan

  21. on puzzle 2 you aren't clearing the square for the knight, it could go g7, e6. You're moving the king so it is covering both of the squares the knight was covering to prevent the black kings escape.

  22. After f5 and Qg7, the point is not to play Qb7# because that gets stopped by a1=Q, which pins the white Queen. The point is to play Bb7#.

  23. Why not BC7 and then QC3 in the first puzzle?

  24. for yall wanting the pgn: k6K/1n3p2/1PB1p3/3p4/2p3P1/Pp6/p6B/Q7 w – – 0 1
    1st problem

    now for the second problem
    5k2/5B2/1PPp2K1/4pN2/3RR1PP/8/pppppp2/5rb1 w – – 0 1

  25. In Puzzle 1, for Bc7 couldn't you just move the queen to Qg8?

  26. 5:30 After Bc7 you pointed out that Qg7 doesn't work because the Bishop blocks the Queen's view of b7, but couldn't you instead go Bc7, and then depending on which pawn move black does put the queen somewhere on the first rank to then go diagonally to the a-file for checkmate?

  27. In the first puzzle, what white pawn g4 doing?

  28. In the first position it is not 3 moves, black will play f7-f5 and then A2-A1=Q and attach white's queen to white's king

  29. In puzzle 2 you misspelled the name of the city.

  30. 5:28 couldnt we just move the quen to c3 like in the e6 pawn?

  31. In the second puzzle couldn't you just RxD2 then RxD6 then RD8 Checkmate?

  32. in the second puzzle you could play b7, c7 and then c8 queen or rook would do the mate because the c8 queen/rook will be protected so if c1 queen takes it the b7 pawn can take the queen and landing on c8, promoting to a queen/rook and delivering the checkmate

  33. in the second puzzle you could play b7, c7 and then c8 queen or rook would do the mate because the c8 queen/rook will be protected so if c1 queen takes it the b7 pawn can take the queen and landing on c8, promoting to a queen/rook and delivering the checkmate

  34. Queen to g7 can still get skewered by pawn promoting on a1

  35. Queen to g7 can still get skewered by pawn promoting on a1

  36. In the third puzzle couldn't the rook move away and let the f pawn check?

  37. In puzzle one, 1.Bc7 still works because after 2.f5, 3.Qg7 works and 4.Qf8# is checkmate

  38. Excuse me but in the 2nd puzzle can't I just play b7, then after b1=Q play Rb4, then after QxRb4 play RxQb4 then after whatever they play win the game with b8=Q#?

  39. The withe pons on the left side you can push and get a qween

  40. 5:28 Queen to G7 and then to G8 or any other square in the back rank is checkmate!

  41. Pos2: if Bc7 instead of Bd6, after f5 and Qg7, Q mates on the Back Rank too.

  42. If Bishop to F4 and pawn to E5, then queen takes pawn and still checkmate in 3. With bishop to C2, then still queen to C3.

  43. Another solution to the first puzzle: Kg8 (moving away the King from the line of attack)
    if black moves b2 then Qd1 followed by Qa4 (checkmate)
    if black moves c3 then Qf1 followed by Qa6 (checkmate)
    if black moves d4 then Qh8 followed by Bxb7 (checkmate)
    if black moves e5 then Qxe5 followed by Qe8 (checkmate)
    if black moves f6 (or f5) then Qf6 followed by Qf8 (checkmate)

  44. pawn to f5, then Queen to g7… Now they move parn to a1 queen they have to take then pawn to b2 etc

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