Puzzle Contest

Guess it's time I tried something new for this bughouse site. Let's see... something that will get buggers to return regularly, thereby driving up my hit count. Of course, a contest!

The general plan for this contest will be to present a series of puzzles, all with a bughouse theme. Some of the puzzles will be standard "find the mate" puzzles, like the ones in my bughouse quizzes, but they won't all be like that. To keep the puzzles interesting and challenging, I'll try to present puzzles with a variety of formats and requirements. (I'll probably be the one creating most of these puzzles, but if you have an interesting idea for a puzzle, definitely contact me. I can always use some good ideas.)

Unlike the studies in my bughouse quizzes, I will not be publishing a solution for these puzzles right away. Instead, I will be publishing the names of the first 10 bughouse players who send me a full solution for the puzzle. The first solver will take the honored position at the top of the list, with the nine runner-up solvers listed immediately below that.

To decide the order in which solutions are found, I will generally go by the received date and time on the e-mail. However, for players who send me a more thorough analysis I will throw in a "fudge factor" to allow for the extra time spent. This fudge factor will be granted purely at my own disgression and will be used only when answers are timestamped at approximately the same date and time.

Of course, one of my objectives in creating these puzzles is to make them difficult -- there wouldn't be much point in having a contest puzzle that can be solved in five minutes now, would there?

Puzzle #1
uploaded August 1, 1999

At long last, the first contest puzzle -- and, boy, do I have a sneaky surprise in store for this first one!

If the position for puzzle #1 leaves you with a strange feeling of deja vu, it is because it is identical to the jkiller-firefly position that was presented in Bughouse Quiz #4. As I said in that quiz, jkiller and firefly had a win in this position, but the plan I gave does not win. Did I intentionally publish incorrect analysis as a diabolical prelude to this first puzzle? Maybe. <sinister laugh> Or, maybe after I published the position I took another look at it; then, suddenly cognizant of the stunning intricateness and wealth of resources contained within this position, I spent the last month of my life analyzing it, dissecting it, taxing the limits of my feeble mind in an obsessive quest to find the ultimate truth entailed within this formation of game pieces. (Hey, that does sound a lot more plausible, whatever it is I just said.) Oh, I did get a little concerned last week when a reader (I won't say who yet) figured out why my plan did not work; however, he didn't send me a line that wins for jkiller and firefly, so I think I can proceed as planned with this surprise.

For this puzzle, assume that you move quickly enough to stay ahead on the clocks, thereby preventing your opponents from sitting. Yes, it is true that your time advantage on both clocks is a mere ten seconds, and it may actually take you several hours, even days, to figure out a win, but that's a moot point here -- just find a plan that achieves victory, assuming your opponents are obligated to move but your team is allowed to sit.

One final note: considering the complexity of this position, there may very well be more than one winning plan in some of the variations. That's fine with me, and I will accept alternative winning plans (even if I think my plan is better), so long as you carry the analysis out to a clear win. When I publish the solution, I will give what I think are the best variations -- and, heck, somebody may find a better line than one I had in mind, ya never know -- along with other noteworthy continuations found by readers.

Oh, I will mention one more thing: in the introduction to this puzzle, I mentioned that this position was originally published in Bughouse Quiz 4 with a faulty solution. The move I gave was 1...Bd6?, which fails to win because of 2. R@e8+! Qxe8 3. Nh7+ Ke7 4. exd6+! (double check!), and White forces mate in about 5 more moves. The player who found this line shortly before I published the contest puzzle was Oliver Hausherr. (Some of the successful solvers also pointed it out in their analyses. Also, it might be mentioned that most of the unsuccessful solvers sent solutions that overlooked this remarkable idea.)

Fabrice Liardet

	Oliver Hausherr		Gnejs		Tecumseh
	Mugwort		Blackcomb		Dragonslayr
	Kueh		Ishamael		Master-Beta

If you think you have the answer, e-mail your analysis to me. For your answer to be acceptable, it must cover all the key lines of the solution.

If your answer is correct, I will let you know. I will also e-mail a reply if your answer is incorrect or not quite complete, but you make a good attempt to solve it. By the way, I won't be selling your e-mail address to any e-mail merchants, so you don't have to worry about adding to your massive daily allotment of junk e-mail if you send an answer in. Happy solving!

I plan to upload a new contest puzzle the first Sunday of every month. Look for my next puzzle September 5, 1999!


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