[Retros] Benko (and Nunn) proof games on chessbase.com

[Noam Elkies]

I wrote:


>> Today's chessbase.com news brings three belated "Christmas puzzles" by

>> Pal Benko <http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6943> [...]

>> -Ng1 -Pe2 / -Nb8;  -Ng1 -Pd2 -Pe3 / -Ng8.  These are surely short enough

>> to have been found by Labelle's computer searches, but were they noticed

>> before that?


Joost de Heer <joost at sanguis.xs4all.nl> replies:


> http://wismuth.com/chess/diagrams/at-home09-sol1.txt


Thanks for the link, which I wasn't aware of before; but ...


> Does this webpage count as a publication?


... even if so, it doesn't count as "before Labelle's computer searches".


> The second is a mirror of the famous Mortimer/Frolkin proofgame

> (see https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Proof_game),

> the extra tempo doesn't merit a new version, IMO.


I recognized the Mortimer-Frolkin precedent too, but don't share
your opinion of it; I think it's a clearly better problem with the
tempo move, and wonder if nobody else noticed this opportunity
in the last 20 years.

NDE