Pragg’s First Problem

[Wayne Komer]

Pragg’s First Problem

May 8, 2021

From Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/86339077041...1462877941748/

The latest issue of "The Problemist Supplement" published by the British Chess Problem Society had a little surprise in store as one of the original entries in it bore the name of none other than our very own Praggnanandhaa R.

It seems that the Indian prodigy has been using his time creatively during this lockdown. This is probably his very first venture into composing and the experts already deem it to be a success! The 15-year-old prodigy is following in the footsteps of the great Pal Benko, in that he has taken up a heterodox genre - the helpmate - to start with.

Now are you ready to take on the newly minted composer Praggnanandhaa? This is a helpmate in 3, meaning here Black will move first and work together (in cooperation) with White to get the black king checkmated in three moves. There are two smart thematically connected solutions and the task is to spot them both. The engines will not prove very useful here so feel free to use them in this case!



Can you solve this helpmate in 3 by the Indian wunderkind?



Solution on Monday, May 10

[Wayne Komer]

Pragg’s First Problem

May 9, 2021

A photograph of Pragg holding the September issue of the Problemist Supplement with his published problem. The photograph was taken by his older sister Vaishali, who is a WGM.

[Wayne Komer]

Pragg’s First Problem

May 10, 2021

Solution to the helpmate:

1.Nd2 Ra2 2.Ke1 Rc2 3.Re2 Rc1#

1.Ng2 Ra4 2.Kf1 Rh4 3.Qe2 Rh1#

[Ian Findlay]

Pragg’s First Problem

May 10, 2021

Solution to the helpmate:

1.Nd2 Ra2 2.Ke1 Rc2 3.Re2 Rc1#

1.Ng2 Ra4 2.Kf1 Rh4 3.Qe2 Rh1#

I do not know much about how problems are judged, but having 2 solutions, I would think is a bad thing?

[Erik Malmsten]

1... Re3 2 c2 Qd5 3. C1=Q Qd1 4. Qxd1#

[Pargat Perrer]

1... Re3 2 c2 Qd5 3. C1=Q Qd1 4. Qxd1#

Don't you have the c3 Pawn moving the wrong way?

I'm not seeing what the point of a "helpmate" is. Can anyone explain it?

[Wayne Komer]

Pragg’s First Problem

May 11, 2021

Why Helpmates? - Chess is all about mate. You must admit that the ultimate goal of the game should receive its share of attention. The only problem is that mates never actually occur. Virtually never. Sometimes at an open or in a blitz game a grandmaster will actually deliver mate; and many have done so in their early pre-teen tournaments. But even when they mate it is usually a very mundane affair, with a protected queen slamming itself onto a square next to the enemy king, or one of those perennial backrank affairs. This is natural, because each side is trying to prevent the other from executing a brilliant checkmate.

All this is a real shame, because the game of chess contains a vast treasure-trove of extraordinarily beautiful mating motifs. There are thousands and thousands of checkmate positions which we normal human beings playing in regular chess tournaments will never see.

One reaction to this unfortunate situation was the chess problem, which appeared almost together with the advent of chess. Here an artificial situation is constructed where one side can deliver a very difficult (actually hard-to-see) mate in a specific number of moves. "Mate problems" have been around since the invention of chess. They can probably show us an additional few percent of the checkmates that exist with the 32 pieces of a chess set.

In 1860 one of the greatest composers of chess problems, Samuel Loyd, had an idea.

Problem number 25 in White’s book on Loyd introduces the concept of a "help-mate". In his annotation Loyd is quoted as saying: "The most suggestive field for a new school of problems that has ever occurred to me, and one which would open up a new line of wonderfully intricate combinations, is shown in number 25, where the query is is merely: How could it possibly happen that White effected a mate in three moves? This it will be observed necessitates an active participation on the part of the Black forces, for both parties enter into a friendly alliance to effect the mate."

It was the first full-fledged genuine helpmate ever published, and it introduced a new era into chess problem composition which has resulted in tens of thousands of exceptionally beautiful and fascinating problems. After the direct mate the helpmate is the second most popular type of chess problem.



Black to play, White to mate in three moves with Black’s assistance

https://en.chessbase.com/post/need-some-help-mate

From the Wikipedia article on helpmates: In order to introduce more lines of play into a problem, various devices can be employed. Most straightforwardly, a problem can have more than one solution. The solutions will usually complement each other in some thematic and aesthetically pleasing way. Each solution can be considered a different phase of play. If there is more than one solution, the composer will state this; if there is no such statement, the problem has only one solution.

Solution to Loyd’s problem

1.Kf6 Ra8 2.Kg7 Bb8 3.Kh8 Be5#

[Pargat Perrer]

Pragg’s First Problem

May 11, 2021

Why Helpmates? - Chess is all about mate. You must admit that the ultimate goal of the game should receive its share of attention. The only problem is that mates never actually occur. Virtually never. Sometimes at an open or in a blitz game a grandmaster will actually deliver mate; and many have done so in their early pre-teen tournaments. But even when they mate it is usually a very mundane affair, with a protected queen slamming itself onto a square next to the enemy king, or one of those perennial backrank affairs. This is natural, because each side is trying to prevent the other from executing a brilliant checkmate.

All this is a real shame, because the game of chess contains a vast treasure-trove of extraordinarily beautiful mating motifs. There are thousands and thousands of checkmate positions which we normal human beings playing in regular chess tournaments will never see.

One reaction to this unfortunate situation was the chess problem, which appeared almost together with the advent of chess. Here an artificial situation is constructed where one side can deliver a very difficult (actually hard-to-see) mate in a specific number of moves. "Mate problems" have been around since the invention of chess. They can probably show us an additional few percent of the checkmates that exist with the 32 pieces of a chess set.

In 1860 one of the greatest composers of chess problems, Samuel Loyd, had an idea.

Problem number 25 in White’s book on Loyd introduces the concept of a "help-mate". In his annotation Loyd is quoted as saying: "The most suggestive field for a new school of problems that has ever occurred to me, and one which would open up a new line of wonderfully intricate combinations, is shown in number 25, where the query is is merely: How could it possibly happen that White effected a mate in three moves? This it will be observed necessitates an active participation on the part of the Black forces, for both parties enter into a friendly alliance to effect the mate."

It was the first full-fledged genuine helpmate ever published, and it introduced a new era into chess problem composition which has resulted in tens of thousands of exceptionally beautiful and fascinating problems. After the direct mate the helpmate is the second most popular type of chess problem.



Black to play, White to mate in three moves with Black’s assistance

https://en.chessbase.com/post/need-some-help-mate

From the Wikipedia article on helpmates: In order to introduce more lines of play into a problem, various devices can be employed. Most straightforwardly, a problem can have more than one solution. The solutions will usually complement each other in some thematic and aesthetically pleasing way. Each solution can be considered a different phase of play. If there is more than one solution, the composer will state this; if there is no such statement, the problem has only one solution.

Solution to Loyd’s problem

1.Kf6 Ra8 2.Kg7 Bb8 3.Kh8 Be5#

Thanks so much, Wayne, for researching and posting all that information on helpmates.

It is nice to see that chess isn't all about competition, and it can still be about a sense of beauty or art. I post this quote from the Chessbase article that Wayne provided the link to:

"...the game of chess contains a vast treasure-trove of extraordinarily beautiful mating motifs. There are thousands and thousands of checkmate positions which we normal human beings playing in regular chess tournaments will never see."

And about Sam Loyd's first-ever helpmate problem presented in 1860, the article further says this: "...it introduced a new era into chess problem composition which has resulted in tens of thousands of exceptionally beautiful and fascinating problems. After the direct mate the helpmate is the second most popular type of chess problem."

That is very different from chess competition. I personally applaud and encourage anything that brings about more of the art and beauty of chess.

This is why I like to invent chess variants. Standard chess does not allow us to ever see or create some amazing positions on the 8x8 board that would be possible if a different set of rules were in place. And it's not just positions, it's also combinations.


I want to create a new class of chess problem. This new problem type I am going to call "War and Peace" problem. As with a chess problem, a mate in N plies for one side or the other is specified. However, there is another specification: there must be M plies of so-called "Peacetime" moves before the N plies of "Wartime" moves.

Peacetime moves mean that any legal chess move is allowed, as long as it doesn't capture, doesn't leave either King in check, and doesn't promote a Pawn.

What this really means is that for Mx2 plies, each side is simply rearranging their pieces without any attacking-type moves or moves that change the material balance. These rearranging moves are intended to change the positional balance, in fact, that is precisely what they are meant to do.

The problem position would be given and the specification of the problem would be stated thusly: "White to move and mate in 2+3 moves." This means White to mate in 2 Peacetime moves and 3 Wartime moves (5 total moves).

What makes this problem type so interesting ... so very interesting ... is that with a normal chess problem, if you have several White pieces and several Black pieces under attack, it is fairly easy to deduce a line of play that starts with a capture or a check (or both). Chess players are very good at seeing lines that involve multiple back-and-forth captures and checks. But in War and Peace problems where both sides have multiple pieces under attack, one must find lines that do not allow for captures and checks until a certain point, where "war is declared" and captures, checks, promotions all may occur.

This is a new paradigm for chess players. It also rules out engines, because engines will only look at captures and checks and promotions.

So I am thinking that if Helpmates can get widespread interest (tens of thousands of composed problems) despite one side making its worst moves possible, then why wouldn't this even more interesting class of problem get at least an equal response?

Now I just have to figure out if I myself can actually compose one of these. I think it will be very difficult. For example if it's a 2+3 problem, you have to figure out after the optimal first ply move all the possible positions that come up after the Peacetime moves, and every one of those positions must result in a mate in 3 or less for the side to move first. Wow! This actually might be the most difficult type of chess problem ever!