Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Rabies Theologorum.

As you might have noticed I seem to be infected by a kind of Rabies Theologorum when it comes to CTS. I will try to explain why.
Have a look at this diagram.
























Black to move and win.

At first I failed with Qxh2, because I hadn't seen the rook on a2 (a whole 4 inches away!)
I tried it again and it took me 152 seconds to find the solution. This happens over and over again on CTS. 152 seconds for a mate in 3 with 3 forced moves. If you take the comparison of J'adoube of the tables of multiplication, we speak here of 7 x 8.
And my answer is:"Where have I left the batteries of my pocket calculator?"
I'm not the only one. 6 of the 16 people who have ever tried to solve this problem failed (hi Slowmouse).
As long as I fail with such simple problems, I don't want to hear anything about positional play or endgames or thoughtprocesses or what. I'm busy. With the tables of multiplication.

CTS
circle 0: 1470
circle 1: 1500
circle 2: 15,800 /70,000
Highest rating 1567

11 comments:

  1. Hmm, I see the first move (I think) but am not seeing a mate in 3, doesn't the king have an escape square that avoids mate in 3 or am I missing something?

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  2. You make it even worse for me. I missed that escape square in 152 seconds too;)

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  3. 1. Bxh2+! Rxh2
    2. Qg3+ Rg2
    3. Qxg2#

    or

    1. Bxh2+! Kh1
    2. Bg3 dbl check Kg1
    3. Qh1#

    or

    1. Bxh2+! Kf2
    2. Qg2 winning the rook.

    :)

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  4. CD, in your 2nd option the king isn't allowed to go to h1.

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  5. Well, firstly let me say that the first thing I looked at was Qxh2 but then I saw the Rook, so the next thing I looked at was Bxh2 and that worked pretty much the way CD wrote - it took about a minute to figure it out.

    As for the multiplication referback, I think you are on the right track if you keep repeating the simple tactics like this one.

    Since you are a legitimate 1700+ rating, it probably doesn't hurt that you are doing more difficult tactics.

    Keep up the good work!

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  6. This, again, just goes to prove that the first essential skill in chess is to look and see.

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  7. I saw it pretty quick .. but that was with the help of your "3 forcing moves" hint ;)

    ps, offtopic, I wonder how someone gets a closet grandmaster title? ;) i guess by getting norms from tourneys held inside closets!? lol just teasing

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  8. SM,
    I believe he is a specialist in the Toilet variation of the Grand Prix attack. (1.e4 c5 2.Pc3)

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  9. I agree with you, and this is why I am a heavy CTS-user, too. BTW Slowmouse may have failed, but Mousetrapper is back and will solve such stuff in less than a minute!

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