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Our weekly chess column: Grandmaster 'Help-mates' that give hope to all of us

11 Oct 2021

      There is a genre of chess problems called “Helpmates” where the fundamental rivalry between white and black is turned on its head. In a helpmate problem, the two sides enter into a friendly alliance to affect a checkmate in a stipulated number of moves. Such unconventional problems are often frowned upon by ‘normal’ chess players who question the practicality of the aforementioned collaboration. Levon Aronian, the fifth best player on the planet right now, recently found out to his cost that helpmates do have some practical applications after all. He also gave hope to all ‘patzers’ around the world with his ‘generous’ gesture. [caption id="attachment_167073" align="alignnone" width="300"] Aronian - Duda (Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals) - White to play[/caption] After thinking for more than five minutes, Aronian played 18.Ba3?? hoping to create some mating threats against the black king. What he didn’t realize was that he unwittingly solved a basic “helpmate in one” problem. Duda checkmated Aronian with 18...Qd2# In chess problem jargon, the integrity of such a helpmate is considered low because it has a ‘duel’ (18.Bb2 will also allow the same checkmate). Not so long ago, Aronian ‘solved’ another helpmate problem. This time it had only one ‘solution’. [caption id="attachment_167074" align="alignnone" width="300"] Nepomniachtchi - Aronian (Speed Chess 2020) - After 44.f4[/caption] Aronian, playing black here, found the ‘only move’ 44...g5. White finished the game with 45.Rh7#.  Lots of great players have overlooked checkmating threats, perhaps the most famous instance in history is when Vladimir Kramnik’s did it against Deep Fritz 2006. [caption id="attachment_167075" align="alignnone" width="300"] Deep Fritz - Vladimir Kramnik - Black played 34...Qe3??[/caption] Kramnik overlooked 35.Qh7# completely. It is important to realise that there is a distinction between this and Aronian’s. Here, Kramnik was already being threatened with a checkmate and overlooked it. In a ‘helpmate’, you can’t just look the other way, you have to help actively. Indian Super Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi (22nd ranked player in the world) is another who used to suffer from the helpmate syndrome. In 2015, he did it twice. [caption id="attachment_167076" align="alignnone" width="300"] Vidit - Hovhannisyan (2015) - White played 21.Rh3??[/caption] Needless to say, Vidit got checkmated with 21.Qf1#. This even prompted the amiable Indian Grandmaster to tweet Did I just play Rh3 in a completely won position? Incredible. And yet, barely two months later, this happened. [caption id="attachment_167077" align="alignnone" width="300"] Bruzon - Vidit - Black played 38...Nf4??[/caption] Black was doing perfectly okay until Vidit, for some reason, decided his knight is better placed on f4. This gave his opponent the chance to finish the game in a spectacular manner with 39.Ng4#. It is worth noting that the knight move enabled the white rook to contribute to the mate. Five years later, when the Chinese phenom Wei Yi walked into a checkmate in one against Sergey Karjakin, Vidit showed that he still hasn’t forgotten his misadventures (nor his sense of humour). He promptly tweeted ; Welcome to the club, Wei Yi. Most composed helpmates showcase beautiful mating motifs which are rare in real games. Perhaps the most beautiful (and rather ironic) helpmate in a real game occurred in a game played by the former World Championship contender Nigel Short in the 1992 Linares Tournament. It’s ironic because Short is famous for his 1991 game against Jan Timman which featured the ‘Immortal King walk”. A year later, another one of his kings suffered a totally different fate. [caption id="attachment_167078" align="alignnone" width="300"] Short - Beliavsky (1992) - Black played 57...f6[/caption] Short didn’t have enough time to calculate the winning endgame after 58.Nxf6, so he played the ‘natural 58.Ke6??. I’m sure our readers have no problem in figuring out what transpired next.  

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