Mate in two

Have a look at the board below:



This is a beautiful Chess problem. White has to move and checkmate Black king in 2 moves.

Let us analyze the problem now. What do you see on the board?

You see the Black king almost smothered. He has only one legal move, which is to capture the white rook in d5. Lets think about it's consequences later. Let's continue with analysis of the position.

Besides the king, Black has 4 pieces: 2 pawns and 2 rooks. The pawns are blocked. The rooks can move. In fact, the rooks are attacking white's pieces.

What about white?

White has an overwhelming superiority over Black. If this were a real game, only an enthusiastic newbie will continue playing as Black. Black's fate is sealed unless white is brain-dead in the next minute or two.

But thats not our problem. Our problem is to checkmate Black in 2 moves.

Lets try the most obvious-looking possibilities first. Lets capture the Black rook sitting in d7 with rook in f7. Will this achieve our purpose? No. The remaining Black rook could capture the knight. And, forget about checkmate in next move.

You can try various moves, till you get fed up or accidentally arrive at the correct move.

Try moving the Bishop, pinning the rook. Or a check with Knight at g5. Move the Queen, or the King, even. Try the pawn push, making it a queen , or any piece you like. The more you try, the more you appreciate the depth of the problem.

Now, those who have seen or solved problems like these know that first move is never an obvious move. It is never a Check or a capture. It is silent, with minimum of ripples and yet, when unveiled, it is a certain death sentence for the opponent.


The answer is Nc6!

Now, if Black replies R(f)xf7, Re5 mate.
If Black plays R(d)xf7, Re6 mate.
If R(f)xd5, Rf6 mate.
If R(d)xd5, Re7 mate.
If Kxd5, Qa2 mate.
If Kxf7, pawn at g8 becomes queen and mate!

Hmmm... really good!

The above problem was coined by Comins Mansfield, one of the best chess problem composers of all time.

Did I solve it? Heck no. Wasted 15 minutes and 50 grams of keratin -hairs and nails put together. And when finally I couldnt hold it any longer, like everyone else, peeped at the answer and wondered how I could have missed it.

"Awakenings" and a freaky coincidence

On a weekday last week, I borrowed some movies from the local library. Usually, I go by imdb ratings. The norm is, unless it is in the top 250 (all time), or rated above 8, I assign a low priority on watching it. It is most likely that I finish it in two sessions if it is a weekday. If it is crap, I never go past the first 15 minutes.

The chances of you picking up a gem outside of those 250 is rare.

Among the ones I picked up, I chose "Awakenings" - a Robyn Williams and De Niro starrer. Even though I had planned to watch it over two sessions, myself and my wife sat through the whole movie, spellbound. It was the story of a doctor (Robyn Williams) trying to help patients who are paralyzed and unresponsive due to a disease called Encephalitis. He finds out that a drug used for treatment of Parkinson's disease can bring these patients back to normal life. De Niro is a patient on whom the first trials are made. He awakens, 30 years after going into a coma as a 10 year old boy. Convinced that he got his life back, he falls in love with a girl whom he meets at the hospital. To his (and the Doctor's) horror, he finds out that the drug loses its effect over a period of time. When it dawns on him that he will have to go back to his old paralytic existence, he has to say the final goodbye to her. This scene is one of the most emotional scenes I have seen in a long, long time. I would say, this is De Niro's best performance ever.

You just cant go to bed and start snoring away after watching a movie like this. Therefore I decided to play online chess even though it was late into night. I logged in for a quick match. I found that the playing room was almost full, with 80 people online. I hooked up with a player, exchanged pleasantries and started the game. From his first name, I was sure he was either from India or Indonesia. Slowly, I began to realize that he is a very good player and was not a brush-off as I initially thought. By middle game, I started to admire his strength and was getting curious about him. I began to check his game statistics (ratings, etc) and found that this person is connected to this gaming room from one of the social networking sites in which I am active. For the sake of privacy, people usually change their names when they play online games. But I had a hunch that this person may not have done so. Therefore I checked his profile online.

I was stunned!

Now tell me this.

What are the odds that I was playing with a person who was the victim of the same disease that I saw in a movie minutes earlier?