[Retros] 50-moves draw

[Pastmaker at aol.com]

As to 50-move draw positions, the first examples were in fact unsound.  Now 
someone might object to characterizing a composition that failed to accurately 
achieve a task as a first example, but I think that misses the point.  Given 
the extraordinarily imaginative matrices used by Breyer and  Wittlich, which 
are embedded in the majority of published 50-move draw problems, I don't think 
it matters whether the particular pioneering compositions had flaws.  The real 
invention  is the matrix. 

As to the matrices, a brilliant innovation in 50-move draw compositions, 
showing a new way to do it, was presented by D. Baibikov in the July 2004 orbit: 
[8/1p6/8/2PPPP2/1PRQBRP1/1prpppp1/1Bp1rP2/b1q2K1k].

Less brilliantly, and mostly just for some fun with the rule itself, I had 
one recently in Thema Danicum that presented the following issue:  a position is 
given in which (a) it is not determinable who moved last, but it is 
determinable that (i) if W is on the move, then each player must have made 50 
consecutive moves without P-move or capture, but (ii) if B is on the move, then W must 
have made 50 consecutive moves without P-move or capture and B must have made 
49 such moves, and (b) each player has a mate on the move, the mating move not 
being a P-move or capture.    So the questions are:  
1. If it is W's move, can B stop W's mate by claiming that the 50-moves by 
each have been made and the game is already drawn?
2. If it is B's move, what happens when he makes the mating move that is also 
the 100th consecutive non-P move, non-capturing move?  W claims the draw and 
B claims the mate.  Whose claim is respected?

The actual rules of chess on the FIDE site unfortunately don't really face 
the issue, because it seems that in effect (the rules are not attractively 
drafted) only a player on the move can claim the 50 move draw rule.  But the issue 
in its purer form seemed amusing enough to bother with.  (The slightly 
interesting feature from a composer's standpoint is that the move that starts the 
counting is the capture by a Rook of a Bishop on its home square.)  If anyone is 
interested, the position is 
[1K6/1pprpp1p/1bp3p1/n1p5/2P4B/1P3PQ1/2PPPRPP/nb5k].  The time would be better spent with the Baibikov composition.

Of course, anyone really interested in the 50-move draw positions must 
consult the famous Plaksin articles in Problem.

Regards,
Tom Volet

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/retros/attachments/20061221/551fc958/attachment.htm>