Misplaced Pages

Albino (chess)

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from Pickaninny (chess)) Problem in the game of chess
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Albino" chess – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Pawns

An Albino is a type of chess problem, "in which, at some point in the solution, a white Pawn on its starting square makes each of its four possible moves (forward one square, forward two squares, capture to the left, capture to the right)." When a Black pawn exhibits similar activity or a quadruple defense instead of "Albino" it is termed a "Pickaninny" (see: albino and pickaninny). The Albino is, "the four possible moves of a WP on its initial square (excluding squares a2 and h2)," and, the Pickaninny, "the four possible moves of a BP on its initial square (excluding squares a7 and h7)". The latter term was coined by Frank Janet by 1916.

This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

Examples

Camil Seneca,
Bulletin Ouvrier des Echecs, 1949
abcdefgh
8b6 white queena4 black kingc4 black bishopa3 white knightf3 white rookc2 white pawnd1 white bishoph1 white king8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh

A simple example of an Albino is the problem to the right, a mate in 2 (White moves first and must checkmate Black in two moves against any defense). It is by Camil Seneca and was first published in the April 1949 edition of the Bulletin Ouvrier des Echecs. The first move of the solution (or key) is 1.Nb1. This threatens 2.Ra3#. Black has four ways to defend against this, each of which leads to a different move of the White pawn. After 1...Bb3, the only move that mates is 2.cxb3# (the pawn captures to the left). After 1..Bd3, the only mate is 2.cxd3# (capturing to the right). After 1...Bb5 only 2.c3# will do (forward one square; 2.c4 is no good because the b4 square needs to be covered by the pawn now the White queen has been cut off). After 1...Bd5 only 2.c4# will do (2.c3 is no good, because Black could play 2...Bb3).

Lev Loshinsky,
Moskau-Rostow, 1930
abcdefgh
8a7 white kinge7 white rookf7 black bishopg7 black pawnh7 white pawne6 black pawnf6 white knighth6 white rookc5 white bishope5 black kingg4 white queenh4 black pawnc3 white knightd3 black rookf3 black knightd2 black knighte2 white pawnb1 white bishopd1 black rook8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh

The Albino pawn moves need not necessarily be in the post-key play of the problem; they can instead be tries: moves which almost solve a problem but which fail to a single Black defense. The mate in 2 to the right, which combines the Albino with a Pickaninny, is an example. It is by Lev Loshinsky and was published in Moskau-Rostow in 1930. The key is 1.Nfd5 (threatening 2. Qf4#) with the variations 1...g5 2. h8=Q#; 1...Rxc3/Rxd5 2.Qf5#; and 1...Rd4 2.Qxg7/f5#. The main point of the problem however, is in the Albino tries, each of which is refuted by a Pickaninny defense. The relevant variations are:

  • 1.exd3 (capture to the left; threatens 2.Nd7#) fails to 1...gxf6 (capture to the right)
  • 1.exf3 (capture to the right; threatens 2.Qg5# and 2.f4#) fails to 1...gxh6 (capture to the left)
  • 1.e3 (one square forward; threatens 2.Qf4#) fails to 1...g5 (two squares forward)
  • 1.e4 (two squares forward; threatens 2. Qf5#) fails to 1...g6 (one square forward)

In each of these cases there are other ways for Black to counter White's threat, but the Pickaninny move is the only one that doesn't give White a new mate (for example, after 1.exf3, Bg6 prevents White's threats, but is not any good because it allows 2.Rxe6#).

Adrian Storisteanu,
British Chess Magazine, 1977
abcdefgh
8c8 black queene8 black rookf8 black knightd6 white pawnf5 black pawna4 black upside-down queenb4 black pawnh4 white kinga3 black rooke3 black upside-down queenb2 white rookc2 white pawnh2 black kinga1 black upside-down queenb1 white upside-down queenf1 black upside-down queenh1 black upside-down queen8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
An albino chess problem with a fairy chess piece called a grasshopper.

The nature of the Albino theme is such that in orthodox chess there must be at least four variations to show the four different moves of the White pawn. However, if the rules of circe chess are applied, the number of required variations can be reduced to two (circe is a chess variant in which captured pieces, rather than being removed from the board, are returned to their home squares). The problem to the right is an example; it is by Adrian Storisteanu and was first published in the British Chess Magazine in 1977. The problem is a helpmate in 2, which means Black moves first and cooperates with White to move to a position where Black is in checkmate after White's second move. This problem features grasshoppers (represented here by inverted queens), a fairy chess piece which moves along the same lines as a queen, but which must "hop" over another piece (friendly or enemy) and land on the square immediately beyond.

There are two solutions to the problem (note that in helpmates, Black's moves are given first):

  • 1.Rd3 c3+ 2.Gaxc3(pc2) cxd3(Ra8)#
  • 1.Rb3 c4+ 2.Gxc4(pc2) cxb3(Ra8)#

The first solution has the White pawn moving forward one square, then, after its rebirth on c2, capturing to the right; the second solution has the pawn first moving two squares and then capturing to the left. Problems like this, showing an Albino with fewer than four variations, are very unusual.

References

  1. Velimirovic, Milan and Valtonen, Kari (2012). Encyclopedia of Chess Problems: Themes and Terms, p.19. ISBN 9788672970647. Quoted in Gary (2013).
  2. Botterill, G. S. (1983). British Chess, p.237. Pergamon Press. ISBN 978-0080241340.
  3. Moore, Robert Clyde (1986). Two-Move Chess Problems, p.5 and 8. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780899501772.
  4. Cassell, Hartwig and Helms, Hermann; eds. (1916). American Chess Bulletin, Volumes 13-15, p.70. H. Cassell and H. Helms. .
  5. Seneca, Camil (April 1949). Bulletin Ouvrier des Echecs.
  6. Loshinsky, Lev (1930). Moskau-Rostow.
  7. Storisteanu, Adrian (1977). British Chess Magazine. ?

External links

Category: