To view problems in this selection just click the blue link in the text and the diagram
will appear on the board above. The button "Solution" displays the solution of
the problem in the window. The program employed to generate this page is the courtesy
of Marek Kwiatkowski.
Solving and creating chess problems and endgames is my hobby. I got it from Mathematical Snapshots by Hugo Steinhaus, my favorite book on amusing mathematics. Although I have never had much time to compose many problems, I had a lot of fun with the few that I managed to do. Almost one third of my problems (25) have been chosen by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) to the collections of world's best compositions, published every three years in the form of a FIDE Album. In 1988 FIDE awarded me with the title of the International Master of Chess Composition.
Many modern chess problems are rather technical and esoteric. Here I present problems which may be fun for an average chess amateur. In the chess problem world I use my second name, Piotr.
The most old-fashioned of my two-move problems is
Problem 3. We can immediately see that
if there were no Qh5 then any move of Sd4 would mate. The key is rather difficult and
leads to seven battery mates.
Problem 2 has two set variations: 1 ... Rd7 2. Re6#, 1.. Bf6 2. Sc6#.
They are replaced by two completely different variations after the key.
The problem has few pieces, so you may try to solve it yourself.
In Problem 6 we have to choose
between two similar ways of creating a battery.
They lead to two analogous systems of four variations.
In Problem 7 each move of Rb5 or Sc4 creates a battery
of Ba6 and the other piece (this setting is called a half-battery).
In order to create a threat we need to close the lines of Ba7 and Rb8 (Nowotny combination).
The problem is to choose between two possible keys, which lead to two
sets of four variations.
Try to solve Problem 9 yourself.
It is clear that we need to prepare an answer to 1 ... c:d4.
Maybe 1. Qd6 or 1. Qf7 are good keys?
Problem 10 presents a change of two mates in four
phases: the set play, two tries and the solution. It is most technical of the twomovers
here and you may just look at the solution.
You can solve Problem 1 yourself. It has very few
pieces and is rather easy. It has four different nice mates, in which all
squares around the Black King are controlled only once and all White pieces
participate in this (they are called model mates).
Problem 4 has a difficult key and presents the idea
of half-pin: if one of the two black men between the White Queen (in this case) and the
Black King moves out of the line, the other piece gets pinned. In this problem
we also have two identical model mates at different squares (so-called echo).
Problem 5 features two pairs of echo mates,
and in the first pair we have two weak promotions of Pd7.
Problem 8 has four variations with the R--B
battery and four different model mates. In two of them, the pinning of black Q and S is
employed.
The focal point of Problem 11 is the square d4.
The Black Bishop and the Black Rook by taking Pawn d4 either clear the d-line
or get pinned on this line. In the third variation, they both get cut off d4.
In Problem 24 the Grimshaw intersection
on the square c3 is exploited with two anticipatory shutoffs from a white half battery,
daring the defence to to find an answer over three variations.
Problem 17 comprises three nice problems in one position.
It seems that 1. Rf5 or 1. Rb8 are good solutions. Are they?
In Problem 18 the idea is to intercept Black Rook and Bishop
on e4 (Nowotny combination again), but the White Rook and Bishop intercept themselves, too,
and Black finds a defense. The solution uses a different Nowotny combination and
everything works fine.
In Problem 19 a trivial mate seems to be ready from the
beginning 1 ... B~. 2. Bc4+ Ba7 3. R:B#. Unfortunately, White has no waiting moves (1. R:a7?
creates a stalemate position). The choice of the key is guided by the necessity to avoid
taking the Black Bishop and creating a stalemate.
Problem 20 is one of the most difficult threemovers ever.
You have to try it yourself to understand what I mean by that.
In Problem 21 the Black King is totally blocked
and avoiding a stalemate is the motivation for the solution.
In Problem 22 the idea is to use the battery Qf1--Sd3,
but the Knight is pinned by the Black Queen. We have to unpin it somehow...
Study 23 is probably the most famous endgame study.
White's only chance are his Pawns, but Black has a clever mate combination. To refute it,
White promotes his three Pawns into a Knight, a Bishop and a Rook, and achieves
a spectacular stalemate.
/BODY>