Author: Frederic Friedel
Date: 03:03:38 02/04/00
John Nunn's endgame article is too long to post here. Apart from that you need boldface and italics to be able to read the solutions properly. So I am only posting the introduction. You will find the rest at http://www.chessbase.com/puzzle/ ------------------------------------------------------- From ChessBase Magazine 71. Copyright John Nunn. The “Brains of Earth” Challenge An endgame test by John Nunn The alien starship had been circling Earth for some days. Protected behind an apparently invulnerable force shield, its gleaming surface had not even been scratched by a small nuclear missile dispatched to test its defences. Suddenly, a tightly-focussed message was picked up by the receivers mounted atop the White House. The President and his advisors paled as they heard the alien's first words, “Our mission is to test your race's fitness to join interstellar civilisation.” The President felt as if he were trapped in a B-Movie. Perhaps his noted predecessor Ronald Reagan would have been more at home in this situation, but the President found himself sweating profusely. The eyes of all his advisors and generals were on him as he struggled to frame a suitable reply. “What is the nature of this test?” “You must send a single entity to champion your race and demonstrate your fitness.” “Single combat?”, queried the President. “Not at all. The challenge is purely intellectual. He must solve some king and pawn endings.” The President looked confused. One of his advisors whispered “I think the alien is referring to chess.” “Chess!,” exploded the President, forgetting that his words would be instantly beamed to the alien ship. “Yes, we always choose a test from the candidate race's own cultural matrix. There would be little point in testing you with the sand-grain games played by the worm-things of Canopus IV, would there?” The voice hardened. “You have one month to select your champion. This deadline is final.” There was an ominous click as the link was broken. The President gulped, while at the same time feeling a little relieved that the alien hadn't mentioned the missile. “What shall we do?” After a short debate, the chief advisor said, “We are fortunate that the starship's stealth capability makes it invisible to most detectors. The general public are ignorant of its existence and we should keep it that way, or else there will be panic.” “If it is kept secret, how will we select our leading expert on, what was it, king and queen endings,” replied the President. “King and pawn endings, Mr President. We will create a test and publish it in chess magazines. It will be treated as a piece of fun and no-one will guess the deadly serious purpose behind it. We can select our champion based on the best response.” The President mused, “The alien said entity rather than human. Could we send a computer – that Deep Throa t thing which won against the human champion, perhaps?” “Deep Blue, Mr President. Perhaps not that particular machine, as I understand it is in retirement, but, yes, we could try something along those lines.” “Well, set it up. Test the best humans and computers that you can lay your hands on,” the President said decisively. “I think the main problem is who should compose the test,” continued the advisor. A minor aide tentatively cleared his throat. When everyone stared at him, he continued falteringly, “I heard about a Dr No or None who wrote some famous books on chess endgames. Perhaps he could do it.” Relieved that someone else had volunteered to have the blame pinned on him if it all went horribly wrong, the chief advisor said, “Well, get in touch with him straight away. Ask him to come up with six test positions as soon as possible.” A week later John Nunn had indeed selected six pawn endgame positions to test the “Brains of the World”. They have been sent to chess magazines all over the world for publication. How to participate If you want to take part in the “Brains of the World” challenge then you should send in your solutions to the six positions given on the next page, together with the time you spent on each of them. Players with a rating of 2400 or higher should not make use of a computer but try to solve the problems all by themselves. Others may use any computer and any software, but they should specify what they used and how the programs helped. Please note: when solving the six positions it is very important to make sure that you find the best moves for Black as well as White. This is especially critical in positions three and six, where Black's best reply to your first move is not at all obvious. Please highlight the main line of your analysis to aid in sifting through the solutions. [Solutions and article on solvers at http://www.chessbase.com/puzzle/]
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