Congress Quick Composing Tourney
Section B: Helpmates in 2 moves
Judge: Harry Fougiaxis (Greece)
Theme
A black piece captures a white piece and it is itself then captured. The captures may occur at the first and/or second moves. The second capture need not happen immediately. White pawns are not allowed as thematic (captured) units. At least two phases are required. Twins and duplex are allowed, but no zero-positions.

39 compositions were submitted, a satisfactory number for a quick tourney. The average level was quite good. Some nice entries were unfortunately anticipated; I do not quote the forerunners here, but the unlucky composers have been informed accordingly.

Valery Gurov, Ilya Ketris
Boris Shorokhov
1 Pr H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Thomas Maeder
Hans Peter Rehm
Kjell Widlert
 2 Pr H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Mario Parrinello
3 Pr H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
H#2
2111
(6+13)
H#2
2111
(6+12)
H#2
2111
(8+11)

1st Prize: Valery Gurov (Russia), Ilya Ketris (Latvia) & Boris Shorokhov (Russia)
i) 1.Dxd3 Te8 2.Dxa6+ Dxa6#
ii) 1.Dxf4 Lc4 2.Dxf8 Dxf8#
Excellent orthogonal-diagonal echo with vacation of the mate squares and additional gate openings that fit perfectly to the matrix.

2nd Prize: Thomas Maeder, Hans Peter Rehm & Kjell Widlert
i) 1.Dxc6 Sxc6 2.Kxc6 Txc7#
ii) 1.Txd4 Sxd4 2.Kxd4 Lxe3#
Successful realisation of the Kniest theme with paradoxical captures of the white knights and pleasant model mates.

3rd Prize: Mario Parrinello (Italy)
i) 1.Txd5+ Kxd5+ 2.Kg3 Sf5#
ii) 1.Lxd6+ Kxd6+ 2.Ke2 Lf3#
Zilahi with the thematic captures aiming to activate the white royal battery.

Mark Erenburg
 4 Pr H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Colin McNab
Jonathan Mestel
1 HM H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Zbigniew Szczep
2 HM H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
H#2
2111
(8+11)
H#2
2211
(7+6)
H#2
b) pd4=>f6
(5+10)

4th Prize: Mark Erenburg (Israel)
i) 1.Dxa2 Txe2+ 2.Te3 Dxa2#
ii) 1.Dxe1 Lxb3+ 2.Lc4 Dxe1#
Captures for self-unpins followed by self-pins on different lines; the core idea is not new [compare, for instance, to Chris Feather Moultings 1991 (WinChloe ID 67692), János Csák The Problemist 1998 (ID 161777), Franz Pachl 2 Pr StrateGems 2002 (ID 105419)], but the reciprocal mode is original enough to justify the distinction.

1st Honourable Mention: Colin McNab & Jonathan Mestel (Great Britain)
i) 1.Dxf4 Lf3+ 2.Kh3 Sxf4# and 1...gxf4 2.Kf5 Lh3#
ii) 1.Dxe2 Lf1 2.Kf3 Lxe2# and 1...f3+ 2.Kxg3 Sxe2#
The reciprocal captures of the white knights are pretty familiar (Michael Schrekenbach, Schach 1988 - WinChloe ID 186252), but the additional pair of variations is novel.

2nd Honourable Mention: Zbigniew Szczep (Poland)
a) 1.Dxh7 Sxh7 2.Tg7 f6#
b) 1.Dxf8 Sxf8 2.Lg7 Sxg6#
The black queen should unguard the mate squares and the only way to achieve the target is by removing the redundant knight. Interesting matrix, yet the position is a bit struggled.

Éric Huber & Vlaicu Crisan
3= HM H#2 Quick Comp Ty
Eretria 2005
Ofer Comay & Paz Einat
 3= HM H#2 Quick Comp Ty
Eretria 2005
Uri Avner
4 HM H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
H#2
2111
(7+9)
H#2
2111
(7+9)
H#2
b) wTg5
(7+12)

3rd Honourable Mention ex aequo: Éric Huber & Vlaicu Crisan (Romania)
i) 1.Dxc5 Dxc3+ 2.Kxc3 Txc5#
ii) 1.Dxf5 Dxd3+ 2.Kxd3 Lxf5#
Captures by the black queen for vacation of the mate squares, combined with sacrifices of the white queen to provide flights to the black king. There is no Zilahi, but this seems to be inherent to the particular matrix.

3rd Honourable Mention ex aequo: Ofer Comay & Paz Einat (Israel)
i) 1.Dxe7 Dxe5+ 2.Kxe5 Txe7#
ii) 1.Dxh7 Dxf5+ 2.Kxf5 Lxh7#
Same comments as above.

4th Honourable Mention: Uri Avner (Israel)
a) 1.Sxe7 Lxe7 2.Dxc3 Txc3#
b) 1.Sxg3 Txg3 2.Lxc5+ Dxc5#
Reciprocal play between two pairs of black and white pieces with introductory non-thematic captures for anticipatory pins.

Vlaicu Crisan & Éric Huber
5 HM H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Vlaicu Crisan & Éric Huber
 6 HM H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Colin Sydenham
7 HM H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
H#2
b) Kd5=>e5
(6+9)
H#2
b) La2=>h3
(5+9)
H#2
Duplex
(5+9)

5th Honourable Mention: Vlaicu Crisan & Éric Huber (Romania)
a) 1.Dxg2+ Kxg2 2.Tc6 Tf5#
b) 1.Dxe1+ Kxe1 2.Te6 Ld4#
Captures of white units by the pinned black queen to provide flights to the white king for subsequent gate openings. Nice idea, but half of the play is already known by the recent Mario Parrinello, StrateGems 2003 (WinChloe ID 155236).

6th Honourable Mention: Vlaicu Crisan & Éric Huber (Romania)
a) 1.Dxg4 Sf7 2.0-0 Txg4#
b) 1.Dxc4 Sd7 2.0-0-0 Txc4#
Zilahi with reciprocal play of the white rooks, blended with castlings, but too symmetric.

7th Honourable Mention: Colin Sydenham (Great Britain)
Black: 1.Sxd3 Txd3 2.Kf4 Tf3#
White: 1.Sxe1 Lxe1 2.Kc5 Lb4#
Cute Meredith with reciprocal captures of the thematic knights.

Johan de Boer
Com H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Petko Petkov
 Com H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Francesco Simoni
Com H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
H#2
2111
(5+10)
H#2
2111
(6+7)
H#2
2111
(8+9)

Commendation: Johan de Boer (Netherlands)
i) 1.Tb6 Tf3 2.Sxc3+ Txc3#
ii) 1.Tc6 Le1 2.Sxf2+ Lxf2#
Simple Zilahi with a rather expensive black queen.

Commendation: Petko Petkov (Bulgaria)
i) 1.Txg4+ Dxg4 2.Lb4 Dg1#
ii) 1.Lxg5+ Dxg5 2.Tf6 Dc1#
Captures to let the white queen come into action, followed by indirect unpins.

Commendation: Francesco Simoni (Italy)
i) 1.Lxb5 Dc4 2.d6 Dxb5#
ii) 1.Txd5 Dd2 2.Lb6 Dxd5#
Captures for vacation of the mate squares with black half-pin. The white play is rather thin.

Pauli Perkonoja
Com H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Hannu Harkola
 Com H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
L'ubomír Širáň
Com H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
H#2
b) pc3=>b3
(8+9)
H#2
b) Sf4=>f3
(7+4)
H#2
2111
(7+15)

Commendation: Pauli Perkonoja (Finland)
a) 1.Dxa5 Sc7+ 2.Kc4 Sxa5#
b) 1.Dxc6 Sa7+ 2.Kd4 Sxc6#
Once more captures for vacation of the mate squares, but this time without any additional element.

Commendation: Hannu Harkola (Finland)
a) 1.Dxc4 Tc5 2.Dxc1 Txc1#
b) 1.Dxf5 Le6 2.Dxh3 Lxh3#
Reciprocal annihilation and gate openings, but rather familiar.

Commendation: L'ubomír Širáň (Slovakia)
i) 1.Dxd5+ Txd5 2.Ke3 Lg5#
ii) 1.Dxg5 Lxg5+ 2.Kf5 Se3#
Complex battery play in quite loaded position.

Menachem Witztum
Com H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Vlaicu Crisan & Éric Huber
 Com H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
Hannu Harkola
Com H#2 Quick Composing Ty
Eretria 2005
H#2
2111
(9+4)
H#2
2111
(4+6)
H#2
2111
(5+5)

Commendation: Menachem Witztum (Israel)
i) 1.Dxc5 Df8 2.Db4 Dxb4#
ii) 1.Dxd3 Df3 2.Db3 Dxb3#
Simple but pleasant geometric play of the two queens.

Commendation: Vlaicu Crisan & Éric Huber (Romania)
i) 1.Txa2 Le5 2.Ta8 Dxa8#
ii) 1.Lxb2 Ta7 2.Lh8 Dxh8#
Long-range moves with captures to open the white queen lines with Opferbahnung and switchbacks.

Commendation: Hannu Harkola (Finland)
i) 1.Txh2 Ld5 2.Th8 Dxh8#
ii) 1.Lxg2 Th7 2.La8 Dxa8#
Same comments as above.