Whisky Tourney
Controller: Colin Sydenham
Judges: Christopher Jones & Michael McDowell (artistic merit)
Jonathan Mestel & John Nunn (difficulty)
Theme
Helpmates in 2 moves, twins. In the diagram position a black piece and a white piece are pinned; in the twin the pinned pieces are interchanged.

Conditions
Entries will be scored separately for difficulty and quality. In scoring for difficulty only the easiest solution in each part will count, and if there are more than two parts only the first two listed will be scored.

Colin Sydenham
Original
Eretria 2005

 

a) 1.Df5 Sxf6 2.Te6 Lxc3#
b) 1.f5 Sf4 2.Kf6 Sxe4#
H#2
b) Sc3<=>Se4
(5+6)
  

29 problems were received from 32 composers. The unusual condition (converting pinned pieces into battery pieces) hampered strategic composition without much assisting difficulty.

Zoltán Laborczi
1 Pr Whisky Ty
Eretria 2005
Aleksandr Semenenko
Valery Semenenko
 2 Pr Whisky Ty
Eretria 2005
Peter Gvozdják
 3 Pr Whisky Ty
Eretria 2005
H#2
b) Sd5<=>Sf2
(4+4)
H#2
b) Sc6<=>Sf7
(6+9)
H#2
b) Td5<=>Td6
(8+10)

1st Prize: Zoltán Laborczi (Hungary)
a) 1.Kd3 Dc1 2.Se4 Sf4#
b) 1.Lf3 Sd3+ 2.Ke4 Dh7#
The most economical entry also gained the highest score for difficulty. An elegant work with sweeping moves by the wD and model mates.

2nd Prize: Aleksandr & Valery Semenenko (Ukraine)
a) 1.b3 Sd5 2.Sxe5 Sxe5#
b) 1.Dxc8 Se4 2.Sxe5 Sxe5#
Successive captures and different double-checks on e5 give unity to this scheme, which scored uniformly well.

3rd Prize: Peter Gvozdják (Slovakia)
a) 1.Kg4+ Sxf3 2.Te6 Tg5#
b) 1.Ke5+ Tf6+ 2.Td6+ Sxc4#
Only one other entry used two T-pins, here well coordinated with the royal T-battery.