Exeter Chess Club: Trawled from the 'Net

From info!strath-cs!str-ccsun!zippy.dct.ac.uk!uknet!EU.net!sk2eu!Viktoria.drp.fmph.uniba.sk!lorinc Fri Mar 10 09:15:05 GMT 1995
Article: 43858 of rec.games.chess
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Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Breyers Puzzle.Retrograde Question
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From: lorinc@Viktoria.drp.fmph.uniba.sk (Juraj Lorinc)
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 14:43:36 GMT
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Reynolds@physics.ucla.edu writes:
{
In article <1995Feb23.212717.12034@zippy.dct.ac.uk> mab025@mathssun5lancs.ac.uk (Mr Peter Marsden) writes:
>In a book of Reti's he describes a puzzle of Breyers in retrograde analysis
>where it was possible to show that the game was a draw due to the 50 move rule
>does anyone knowthe actual puzzle or another retrograde analysis  puzzle
>where it is possible to prove the 50 move rule has been passed?


Here is Gyula Breyer's famous retrograde analysis problem
that Reti mentions in `Modern Ideas in Chess.'
It was published in the Chess Amateur, February 1922, page 164, No. 180,
in the Fairy Chess column, edited by T. R. Dawson.
Breyer had died in November 1921 at age 27 from heart disease.

8 K B   *   *   *      Diagram 1
7 Q p N   p   * p 
6 r R p k P *   *      Dedicated to T. R. Dawson and W. Hundsdorfer,
5 * R p   p   *        the Great Masters of Retrograde Analysis.
4 b q P *   *   *      
3 b r P   *   *   
2 p P P *   *   * 
1 N B *   *   *   
  a b c d e f g h

    Who wins?

Here is The Chess Amateur's description:
``The wonderful No. 180, certainly the most glorious retro I have had the 
privilege of yet printing, is sent me by the Budapest circle.  Composed during 
the war, its dedication shows that chess could rise supremely over all the 
turmoil.  Its talented composer's death was announced only a few days ago, at a 
tragically early age.  So that no solver shall miss the idea, I state 
distinctly that the retro analysis proves the game is DRAWN by virtue of 
the 50-move Rule!''
}

All right, but the story continues...
47 years after this Luis Garaza from Uruguay discovered the possibility to
shorten the retroanalysis one move. He also found the correction: normally
prolonged the combination. (Problem 3. 1969) - the glorious thought of
Breyer was saved.  (B.Formanek - Kompozicny sach na Slovensku, 1984)

Really was ? Story continues again...
The Uruguay composer has bad luck too ! I don't know who found his
correction was incorrect, but in the selection from world's chess
composition magazines in the Slovak magazine Pat a Mat 19/1994 was published
the next one correction of this problem. It follows:

8 KB------
7 QpN-p--p
6 r-pkP---  Gyula Breyer, correction Gerard Willts (dedicated to
5 Rqp-p---                Andrej Kornilov)
4 bRP-----  Die Schwalbe 6. 1991
3 brP-----
2 pPP-----  The last 96 halfmoves ?
1 NB------
  abcdefgh

As Peter Gvozdjak writes in this article, it is with high probabily the
successful correction: the uniqueness of the last 96 moves is proved using
the 50 moves rule, the 97th and more halfmoves are not unique. It is
interesting that G.W. used computer for analysis ...

(I am too lazy to write all the solution down - it seems it is not very
different from the Breyer's one, already published here.)

 Juraj Lorinc - The unbelievable fairy chess composer.
		e-mail: Juraj.Lorinc@st.fmph.uniba.sk

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