A Trap With A Tale, Continued

null

Trap Tales is a self-help book that purports to help you overcome seven traps that might derail your life. A Tale of Traps, perhaps, rather than A Trap With A Tale. We haven't read this book so we can't say much about it, but it's received high marks from readers and reviewers.

Are there seven traps to avoid in the game of checkers? Willie Ryan has already shown us dozens, and there are countless more. One book would never be enough to tell the tale of all of them.

As we continue to move toward a conclusion of our Tricks Traps & Shots of the Checkerboard series, which has run for many years now, we have one more position to present from Willie's A Trap With A Tale section.

Here's the run-up, with brief commentary by your Editor, using KingsRow with the 10-piece endgame database.


1. 11-16 24-19
2. 8-11 22-18
3. 16-20 25-22
4. 9-13 29-25
5. 11-15 18x11
6. 7x16 22-18

Out of book, inferior, and might lose. 21-17 or 28-24 would have been fine.


7. 20-24 27x11
8. 10-15 19x10
9. 6x29 28-24
10. 29-25 32-27
11. 1-6 24-19

Worse yet. 24-20 was better but White is definitely lost.


12. 6-9 ...

Maintains a slight advantage but throws away the win. 25-29 was indicated, believe it or not.


12. ... 19-15
13. 3-8 ...

25-29 was still indicated. The game is now a probable draw.


13. ... 23-18
14. 12-16 21-17
15. 13x22 26x17
16. 25-22 17-13
17. 9-14 18x9
18. 5x14 13-9
19. 16-19 9-5
20. 14-18 5-1
21. 19-23 27-24
22. 23-27 24-20
23. 27-32 1-5?
WHITE
null
BLACK
Black to Play and Win

B:WK5,11,15,20,30,31:B2,4,8,18,K22,K32

White has blundered and Black now can win. First, can you find the win? Second, can you go back and correct White's losing move? It's actually not all that difficult. Work it out and then click on Read More to turn a long Tale into a short one, by revealing the solution.null



Solution

The correct White move to draw was 23. ... 30-26. (Note: correspondent Lloyd Gordon pointed out that 20-16 would also draw.) But Black now wins as follows (Willie's solution, which differs only in slight details from the computer solution).


24. 18-23 31-27
25. 23-26! 30x23
26. 22-26 ...

Willie leaves the position here as a Black win, which is quite straightforward.


26. ... 15-10
27. 26x19 27-24
28. 19x28 ...

Black wins easily.

08/17/19 - Category: Books -Printer friendly version-
You can email the Webmaster with comments on this article.