Long fairy helpmates 3

In the Czechoslovak album 1985-87 I found handful of longer fairy helpmates that can be of interest to our readers.
Tichomir Hernadi
2nd HM SU + SS 1986
(541 Sachova Skladba 7. 1986)

1.Kc7 Ra1 2.Kb8 Rxh1 3.Ka7 Rxh8 4.Ka6 Ra8#

1.Rc6 Rxh8 2.Rc7 Rxh1 3.Kc8 Ra1 4.Bd7 Ra8#

Two big squares by white rook in opposite directions. Note that grasshoppers play no one move...









h#4 (2+6)
0+2 grasshopper
2.1.1....
Miroslav Bily
1st HM Sachove Umenie 1985

a) 1.Sf4 Be7 2.Ke5 Bg5 3.Gg4 Kc5 4.Ge4 gxf4#

b) 1.Sf6 Bg6 2.Qe7 g4 3.Ke6 Kc6 4.Ge5 gxf5#

'Obvious' echo with (0,1) shift.









h#4 (3+5)
grasshopper g7
b) d6 -» f7
Miroslav Henrych
2nd Special Mention Probleemblad 1987

1.Kd4 d3 2.MAd5 Kg4 3.b2 Kf3 4.b1MA Ke2 5.MAc3 Ne6#

1.MAf5 Kg4 2.b2 Kf3 3.b1N Ke2 4.Ke4 Ne6 5.Nd5 d3#

Cycle of 5 white moves in 2 solutions.









h#5 (3+4)
nightrider a4, mao e3
2.1.1....
Jaroslav Brada
Comm SU + SS 1986

a) 1.g4 Sxe2(Sg8) 2.g3 Sxg3(pg7) 3.c1Q Sxe4(pe7) 4.Qc6 Sxf6(pf7) 5.Qe8 Sh7#

b) 1.Bh5 Bxg5(pg7) 2.Be8 Bxf6(pf7) 3.c1R Bd4 4.Rg1 Bxg1(Rh8) 5.Rg8 Bc5#

Blocks of many flights, partly by black moves, partly by reborn black pieces after white captures.









h#5 (2+10)
Circe
b) bishops c1, e2
Tichomir Hernadi
2nd Prize SU + SS 1986
(470 Sachova Skladba 5. 1986)

1.Kh8 Kg3 ... 11.Kh8 Ka4 12.L(xa6)a5+ Kxa5 ... 24.Kh8 Kf4 25.Kh7 Kxe3 ... 45.Kh7 Kf6 46.Kh8 Kxg6 47.e3 Kxh5 48.Kh7 g6+ 49.Kh8 g7+ 50.Kh7 g8Q#

Long journey by white king to give black necessary free move by pawn. Locusts are very suitable for restricting movement as they cannot move without meal in the form of opposite pieces, but ...

+++ Composition In the Spotlight (CIS) No. 12 +++

Spotlight comment by Juraj Lörinc:

The chessboard if full of locusts. For less experienced, their movement is as follows: on the queen lines (i.e. horizontal, vertical and diagonal) they jump over the enemy piece and land on the square immediately behind, that square has to be empty and the enemy piece jumped over is captured in the process. This all means that locusts are quite special pieces jumping not on the arrival square, rather on its path to arrival square. For those checkers' players it is something natural, isn't it? But in chess this is exception.

In the diagram position there is only one move by locust possible, namely La7 can capture pa6 by landing to a5. But locusts also restrict move possibilities of both kings. Kh7 cannot move to g8 because of possible L(xg8)h8 nor g7 because of L(xg7)h6. Similarly wK is restricted.

That is why wK cannot immediately capture pawn e3, La7 guards the pawn. If the locust would move away by 1.L(xa6)-a5, white could capture pawn 1...Kxe3, but the he would not be able to break through to the upper side of the board. Therefore white has to take care of La7 first (in moves 1-11), then the king returns and captures the pawn (in moves 12-25) and then heads for capture at g6 (in moves 26-46). Then it is clear why pe3 had to be taken - Black needs a tempo as his king is for a short while confined to h8. The rest is easy - only note that white locust f8 does not guard h5 as there is no square for landing behind.

This helpmate easily beats well known Hegermann's length record, of course, but also naturally cannot be considered a record. Fairy pieces have almost unlimited possibilities and seeing this helpmate in the respective Czechoslovak album was very inspiring for me in early 90s.









h#50 (5+10)
1+5 locust
Tichomir Hernadi
1228 Probleemblad 7-8 1987

1.Ka8 Ke8 ... 21.Ka8 Kxc6(Qd8) ... 42.Kb8 Kxd8 ... 67.Ka8 Kxf3 ... 93.Ka8 Kxc8(Qd8) 94.f3 Qec6#

... well, Madrasi condition is of course even more restrictive.









h#94 (6+12)
Circe, Madrasi
0+3 locust

Comments to Juraj Lörinc.
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