Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Great Kids Night on 8/14 and fun Casual Night on 082117 - And Chess Composers

LCCC had a night ten kid turnout on their night, with 6 other 'older' kids in attendance.

Then casual night had five members arrive to greet our newest member; Richard. Great to have you here.

Stay tuned for live reports from the Indianapolis Open as LCCC has some players making the trip. Live tournament feeds are always fun to see.

Now some chess history from GM Andrew Soltis:

The great chess (problem) composers led some interesting lives.
Wolfgang Pauly discovered a comet.
Alexei Troitsky was a Chief Forester in a remote Russian region.
Milan Vukcevic was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in chemistry.
Henri Rinck refined olive oil.
William Shipman was city clerk of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
And Otto Titusz Blathy of Hungary is considered the father of the electrical transformer and the alternating current electric motor.

Otto Blathy is also the "Crown Prince of Bizarre Chess Problems."
If you never heard of Blathy or if you hate chess problems - keep reading. He composed problems and studies for people who didn't care for either.

Take a look at this one.

Remember White is playing from the bottom of the diagram.

In other words it is White's move and he can promote on the next move.

White to checkmate in five moves!

 Find it.

If you don't - think about this:
My chess computer - Igor3000 - has been crunching away for 5 minutes and is 30-ply deep (60 half moves) and has not found the solution.

Elementary my dear Dr. Blathy for us humans. Elementary.

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