[Retros] Traditional Christmas Contest of Stuttgarter Zeitung

[Jens Guballa]

Hi,

Sorry for posting the results of the contest so late.

The result is available in German here:
http://www.kaniaverlag.de/htm/Weihnachts2014.html 

Here is a brief translation:

The lots were drawn among 31 senders with at least "1.5 points out of
2" (problem A + B).

The winners are:

1st price (Apple iPod Touch): Peter Wauschkuhn (Stuttgart)
2nd price (Falk-navigation system): Jens Guballa (Tamm)
3rd price (Apple iPod Nano): Jürgen Berthel (Stuttgart)

Nine experts send completely correct solutions for all four problems.
These are:

Olli Heimo
Hannu Lehto (both from Finland)
Gerson Berlinger (Bad Friedrichshall)
Günther Büsing
Dietmar Fauth (both from Munic)
Rainer Kuhn (Worms)
Mario Richter (Berlin)
Karl Roscher (Neckargemünd)
Rolf Schreiber (Stuttgart)

They will receive a book price.

Very close to perfect solutions were sent by P. Maier, Sandau, Juel,
Heimerdinger, Baier, Eilenberger, Guballa, Empacher, B. Schuh and
Bergmann.

Surprisingly problem A separated the wheat from the chaff, especially
the well hidden knight on h6. Some senders solved the problems with
f7:Xe8=B, but that retraction is illegal. Others saw this illegal move,
but they did not recognize that uncapturing a white knight on h6 is
legal.

Number of correct solutions:
A: 16
B: 34
D: 17
E: 22


A: Two solutions. 
a) 1.Ke3:Pd3+ e4:d3+ e.p. 2.d2-d4 b6-b5+
b) 1.f5:g6+ e.p. g7-g5 2.f4-f5+ Kg6:Nh6+!


B: Back: 1.g2:Pf3! And instead 1. R:b7 and 2. Rb8#
wBa2 is a promotee, the pawn promoted either via d7 or f7, thus
castling is not allowed for black.


D: Wolfgang Dittmann, feenschach 1877, 1st price. Judge: Stuttgart's
retro legend Josef Haas 

White retracts 1.g5:f6 e.p.! and now all four knights on the board are
promotees.


E: Günther Weeth, version Nikita Plaksin, Die Schwalbe 1978, 1st price

In short: a white knight must go to c3 to shield the black king from a
bishoph's check. A white rook is uncaptured and must cross the critical
square c1. Only then the wB can go to c1 and d2-d3 can be retracted.


For a full solution please refer to the web site mentioned above. In
case you need an extended English translation, please let me know.

Best regards,
Jens