Editing Babson task (section)

==Directmate Babsons==

Composing a Babson task in directmate form (where White moves first and must checkmate Black against any defence within a stipulated number of moves) was thought so difficult that very little effort was put into it until the 1960s, when [[Pierre Drumare]] began his work on the problem, which occupied him for the next twenty years or so. He managed to compose a Babson task in which the knight is replaced with the [[Nightrider (chess)|nightrider]] (a [[fairy chess piece]] which moves by making any number of knight moves in the same direction on unblocked squares) but found it hard to devise one using normal pieces: because of the knight's limited range, it is difficult to justify a knight promotion by White in response to a knight promotion by Black on the other side of the board.

{{Chess diagram
| tright
| '''Pierre Drumare''' <br />''Memorial Camil Seneca'', 1980
|  |  |  |rl|  |  |qd|bl
|  |  |  |  |  |pl|  |  
|  |nl|  |  |  |  |  |bl
|  |kl|  |  |  |pl|  |  
|rl|pl|pl|  |pd|rl|  |  
|  |bl|  |pl|nd|  |  |  
|rl|pd|pd|kd|nd|  |pd|  
|bd|ql|bd|rd|rd|bd|rd|bd
| White to play and mate in five
}}

When Drumare eventually succeeded using conventional pieces in 1980, the result was regarded as highly unsatisfactory, even by Drumare himself. It is a mate in five (first published ''Memorial Seneca'', 1980). The key is 1.Rf2, after which captures by Black on b1 are answered by captures by White on g8.

Efficiency in chess problems is considered a great boon, but Drumare's attempt is very inefficient: no fewer than 30 pieces are on the board. It also has six promoted pieces in the initial position (even a single promoted piece is considered something of a "cheat" in chess problems), which is in any case illegal: one of the white f-pawns must have made a capture, and the white and black b- and c-pawns must have made two captures between them, making three in total, yet only two units are missing from the board. Despite all these flaws, it is the first complete Babson task.

In 1982, two years after composing this problem, Drumare gave up, saying that the Babson task would never be satisfactorily solved.

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{{Chess diagram
| tright
| '''Leonid Yarosh''' <br />''Shakhmaty v SSSR'', March 1983
|  |qd|  |  |  |  |  |rl
|pl|  |  |nl|  |  |  |  
|  |  |  |  |  |pd|  |  
|  |  |pd|  |  |pd|  |  
|  |  |pl|kd|  |bd|  |nd
|  |  |  |  |  |  |pl|  
|pl|nl|pd|pl|  |pl|  |kl
|bl|ql|  |  |  |rl|  |bl
| White to play and mate in four
}}

The following year, [[Leonid Yarosh]], a [[football (soccer)|football]] coach from [[Kazan]] who was virtually unknown as a problem composer until that point, came up with a much better Babson task than Drumare's: the position is legal, it is much simpler than Drumare's problem, and there are no promoted pieces on board. First published in March 1983 in the famous Russian chess magazine ''[[Shakhmaty v SSSR]]'', this is generally thought of as the first satisfactory solution of the Babson task. Drumare himself had high praise for the problem.

The key is 1.Rxh4, and the main lines are:

{{unordered list|style=list-style-position:inside
|1...cxb1{{=}}Q 2.axb8{{=}}Q Qxb2 (2...Qe4 3.Qxf4 Qxf4 4.Rxf4#) 3.Qb3 Qc3 4.Qxc3#
|1...cxb1{{=}}R 2.axb8{{=}}R (2.axb8{{=}}Q? Rxb2 3.Qb3 stalemate) Rxb2 3.Rb3 Kxc4 4.Rxf4#
|1...cxb1{{=}}B 2.axb8{{=}}B (2.axb8{{=}}Q? Be4 3.Qxf4 stalemate) Be4 3.Bxf4 Bxh1 4.Be3#
|1...cxb1{{=}}N 2.axb8{{=}}N (2.axb8{{=}}Q? Nxd2 and no mate) Nxd2 3.Nc6+ Kc3 4.Rc1#
}}
However, Yarosh's problem has a small flaw: the key is a capture, something which is generally frowned upon in problems. Also, when first presented, the black piece at h4 was a pawn, but a computer discovered an additional solution by 1.axb8=N hxg3+ 2.Kh3 Bxb8 3.Qxc2 and mate next move. Yarosh then substituted a knight on that square; now 1.axb8=N fails to 1...Nf3+ 2.Bxf3 Bxb8 3.Qxc2 Bxg3+ and White is too late. Nevertheless, when Dutch author [[Tim Krabbé]] saw this version in the Soviet publication ''[[64 (magazine)|64]]'', he records that the realisation that somebody had at last solved the Babson task had the effect upon him as if he had  "... opened a newspaper and seen the headline 'Purpose Of Life Discovered'."

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{{Chess diagram
| tright
| '''Leonid Yarosh''' <br />''Shakhmaty v SSSR'', August 1983

|bl|qd|  |bl|  |kl|  |  
|  |  |  |pl|pd|nl|  |  
|pl|  |  |  |pl|pd|  |  
|pl|  |pd|  |  |pl|  |  
|  |  |pl|kd|  |bd|  |rl
|  |pd|  |  |  |  |  |  
|pd|nl|  |pl|  |pl|  |  
|ql|rl|  |  |  |  |  |  

| White to play and mate in four
}}

Yarosh continued to work on the problem, and in August 1983, he created an improved version with a non-capturing key, which appeared in ''Shakhmaty v SSSR''. Many chess problemists,{{Who|date=November 2022}} including Tim Krabbé,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Krabbé |first1=Tim |title=The Babson Task |url=https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/babs.html |website=De website van Tim Krabbé |access-date=10 April 2022}}</ref> consider the problem one of the greatest ever composed. Again, it is a mate in four.

The key here is non-capturing and also thematic (that is, it is logically related to the rest of the solution): '''1.a7!'''. The variations are largely the same as in the original:

{{unordered list|style=list-style-position:inside
|'''1...axb1{{=}}Q 2.axb8{{=}}Q Qxb2 3.Qxb3 Qc3 4.Qbxc3#''' (alternatively,  '''2...Qe4 3.Qxf4 Qxf4 4.Rxf4#''')
|'''1...axb1{{=}}R 2.axb8{{=}}R''' (2.axb8{{=}}Q? Rxb2 3.Qxb3 is stalemate) '''Rxb2 3.Rxb3 Kxc4 4.Qa4#''' (alternatively,  '''2...Re1 3.Rxf4+ Re4 4.Rxf4#''')
|'''1...axb1{{=}}B 2.axb8{{=}}B''' (2.axb8{{=}}Q? Be4 3.Qxf4 stalemate) '''Be4 3.Bxf4 B(any) 4.Be3#'''
|'''1...axb1{{=}}N 2.axb8{{=}}N''' (2.axb8{{=}}Q? Nxd2 and no mate) '''Nxd2 3.Qc1 Ne4 4.Nc6#''' (alternatively,  '''2...Nc3 3.Rxf4+ Ne4 4.Rxf4#''')
}}

There is another defence for black that is non-thematic and also leads to mate in four: 1...Qxd8+ 2.Kg7 axb1{{=}}Q 3.Rxf4+ Qe4 4. Rxe4#. However, this is not considered a flaw according to the rules of the Babson task.

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{{Chess diagram
| tright
| '''Pierre Drumare''' <br />''Thèmes-64'', 1985

|  |  |  |  |  |nd|qd|  
|  |  |nl|  |  |pl|pl|pd
|  |  |  |  |  |  |bd|pl
|  |  |  |  |  |pl|kd|  
|ql|pd|  |  |  |  |nl|  
|  |kl|  |pd|rd|bl|pl|  
|  |  |pd|rl|pl|  |rl|  
|  |  |bl|  |  |  |  |  

| White to play and mate in five
}}

Yarosh composed a completely different Babson task later in 1983 and another in 1986. Several other Babsons were later composed by other authors, including one by Drumare in 1985. The solution of this Babson is 1.fxg8{{=}}Q dxe2 2.Nxe3 e1{{=}}Q/R/B/N 3.gxf8{{=}}Q/R/B/N and now mate in two in all variations.

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