MARK RUBERY CHESS
The “Three Pawns Problem” first came to prominence when it was examined by Carrera in 1617 and attracted a lot of attention before it was solved by the Hungarian player Josef Szen (1805-57) in 1836.
When visiting Paris, Szen offered to play the starting position as a game for a stake of 20 francs and one of the pre-eminent players of the day, Pierre Saint-Amant, accepted the challenges. Each player made the first move alternately and it resulted in with Szen winning all 20 games. Sven (obviously on to a good thing) then visited London in 1837 and won all games there as well. George Walker and William Bone eventually discovered Szen’s “method”, and published it in the “Philidorean” in 1838 and “Bell’s Life” in 1840.
The position could be regarded as a deep puzzle with White (or whoever moves first) to play and win.
In the Szen position, both sides strive to set up this ideal pawn formation on a5, b2, c4 or, for Black, h4, g7, f5. If both succeed then it will be a draw, since they will both be forced to move their kings up and down. However, White crosses his opponent’s intention by first bringing his king in front of the enemy pawns, and Black must do likewise. The main line goes: 1 Ke2! h5 2 Kf3 f5 3 Kg3! Kd7. 4 a4 Kc6 5 c4 Kb6 6 b4 g5 7 a5+ Ka7 8 c5 h4+ 9 Kh2. Now Black can stop the pawns - but he will have to commit his king before White’s: a) 9 ...Kb8 10 b5 f4 11 Kg2! This is mutual zugzwang - whoever moves loses, e.g.: 11 ...g4 12 Kg1 f3 13 Kf2 h3 14 Kg3 Kb7 15 b6, etc. b) 9 ...Kb7 10 b5 f4 11 Kg1! wins. c) Or he can race. 9 ...f4 10 c6 f3 11 b5 g4 12 c7 Kb7 13 b6 f2 14 Kg2 g3 15 a6+ and wins.
This position has proved to be a challenge to our silicon friends down the years although the chess engine Stockfish now finds the key move within minutes…
Szen was also one of the strongest players in Europe of his time and participated in the first international tournament held in London in 1851.
‘And here Topalov shook hands and resigned the game and match. Topalov started an animated and friendly conversation discussing lines from the game with Anand as they signed the scoresheets and for a short while afterwards. Topalov then shook hands with his opponent once again before leaving the stage. In the last moments of disappointment he behaved with perfect sportsmanship. Also at the board Anand didn’t look overly elated either; probably he was tired and just glad he accomplished his mission.’ (Malcolm Pein commenting on the end of the Anand-Topalov WCh 2010)