Just when you thought we’d forgotten about you… WHAM!! Another puzzle of the week gets posted to help you melt away these balmy, crazy hot Summer evenings!! Grab yourselves a beer, a cool lemonade, or my favourite – a Gin & Tonic – and settle in for another tough puzzle….
But first – the winner from Round 6. It was another complex one, with a tenuous link to Morphy.
I can say that Josue was our triumphant winner – well done to you, sir! And the highly tenuous link to Morphy – plus the solution – comes from our question-setter, Carsten:
“When looking into Art Bisguier recently, I idly wondered whether he was the last person alive with a Morphy number of 4.
He wasn’t.. not by a long shot, as quite staggeringly the former child prodigy Arturo Pomar had a Morphy number of 3!!
Morphy played Henry Bird.
Henry Bird played Geza Maroczy
Maroczy played Pomar in 1947! Loads of still-active players have faced Pomar.
So let’s see how Pomar played at his best:
In the diagram Black has sacrificed the exchange and a pawn, but now decided the game immediately with:
- Qb5!! And White resigned due to 2. Qxb5 Bxf3+ 3. Rxf3 Rg1+ mate!
Zuckerman-Pomar, Malaga, 1968”
Interesting stuff, I’m sure you agree.
Anyway, without further ado – round 7, solutions in the comments please – Black to move:
I think I have it. Nunn has a dictum ‘loose pieces drop off’. The N of d5 is currently unprotected. The f3 P can be attacked twice with N + B. Therefore 1….Nxf3 2. exf3 Bg2. 3. R moves to g1 or e1 then Bxf3+ and picks up the N. Although ‘only’ a pawn up, Black has the better development and two B’s v B+N. White can’t castle so will be hindered further in developing.
N X f3 agreed