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Subject: Re: "The Kaleidoscope"

Author: F. Huber

Date: 07:48:23 01/09/05

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On January 09, 2005 at 09:28:15, Matthew Hull wrote:

>Composed by J. N. Babson, Seattle, Washington, in 1878.
>
>Black -- 16 pieces
>White -- 16 pieces
>
>Either White or Black to play and checkmate, or compel his adversary to
>checkmate in eleven moves.
>
>[D]Nb1QN3/1pp1PPp1/1rnn1p1P/1Pkr2B1/P1pRpK1p/2P1P2B/2qb2Pp/4R3 w - - 0 1

Hi Matthew,

that´s really an amazing position!

I´ve now checked all 4 cases and can confirm three of them:

Nb1QN3/1pp1PPp1/1rnn1p1P/1Pkr2B1/P1pRpK1p/2P1P2B/2qb2Pp/4R3 b - - bm #11; 00:00
@ C3/K5/P3/X6;
Nb1QN3/1pp1PPp1/1rnn1p1P/1Pkr2B1/P1pRpK1p/2P1P2B/2qb2Pp/4R3 w - - bm s#11; 00:00
@ C1/K2/P2/X2;
Nb1QN3/1pp1PPp1/1rnn1p1P/1Pkr2B1/P1pRpK1p/2P1P2B/2qb2Pp/4R3 b - - bm s#11; 00:02
@ C1/K5/P3/X4;

So both selfmates in 11 are ok, and also the mate in 11 if it´s blacks turn -
but if white has to move it seems to be only a mate in 12!?

Nb1QN3/1pp1PPp1/1rnn1p1P/1Pkr2B1/P1pRpK1p/2P1P2B/2qb2Pp/4R3 w - - bm #12; 00:00
@ C3/K4/P2/X3;

I´ve tested this with Chest, King and GoliathMate - Gustav failed because it
doesn´t accept this position as legal.
Of course I´ve not tried it yet with Chest in brute-force mode (this would
take too long on my slow notebook), but I´m quite sure that this #12 is
indeed the shortest possible.
But if you have a solution in 11 moves, please post the mainline here -
maybe then I could check it again with Chest.

Regards,
Franz.



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