Author: Jonas Cohonas
Date: 13:51:05 10/19/02
I found this wonderful position in Peter Durfeld's "Skakmyter" (Chessmyths) And the story is losely translated by me. The story behind it is equally wonderful: In this position: [D] 8/3P3k/n2K3p/2p3n1/1b4N1/2p1p1P1/8/3B4 w - - 0 1 White chose to resign as he is behind with a knight and a few pawns, and promoting the d pawn results in a simple knight fork on f7... With this position starts the story of a young Georgian pessant who, while visiting the Zar capital had been a spectator to this game. The end position had made a great impression on him, the young chess enthusiast had instinctively sensed that white was not lost! He then wrote down the position and went home to his farm in the south of Russia. In the following days and weeks he increasingly became more and more fascinated with this position, until it became an obsession for him to figure out how white could save this game and maybe even win! He would frequently setup the position while working the fields and wherever he went and the weeks turned into months and the months turned into years. It would take more than 30 years before one day he ran off his field screaming, iv'e got it! white can win this game! He then sent his lifes analysis of this game to the then famous chess magazine "64" who's editor in 1963-69 was Tigran Petrosjan, but Petrosjan for unknown reasons never recieved the letter and the letter remained unopened until 1984 when Karpov was editor, however the one to open the letter was no less than Tal who upon reading the letter was moved and excited by this complex solution, that turned out to be a forced mate in 14! They went out to his farm to congratulate him and shower him with some sybolic gifts for his remarkable analysis and dedication, but as it turned out the pessant had died 2 days prior... As far as i know this is a real life story and the solution i will provide tomorrow, it is truely spectacular, try and see if your program can solve it overnight, but don't get fooled by the eval, DF7 when fed the moves had as high as -11.20 before realizing it was lost for black! heck try and see if your prog can even find the first move :) Regards Jonas
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