This week’s puzzle marks the opening stage of a national competition in which Guardian readers have performed consistently well over the years. The annual Winton Capital British Solving Championship for 2015-16 is open to any British resident and offers a healthy £2,000 prize fund. Entry is free and requires just a single move answer which you can send by post or email.
You have to work out how White, playing as usual up the board, can force checkmate in two moves, however Black defends.
To enter, simply send White’s first move to Steve Giddins, 4 Fennel Close, Rochester ME1 1LW. Alternatively, you can email White’s first move to winton@theproblemist.org. Either way, include your postal and/or email address and mark your entry “Guardian”.
The closing date is 14 August. After that all entrants will receive the starter problem answer and those who get it right will also be sent a postal round of eight problems, with plenty of time for solving. The best 30-40 entries from the postal round will qualify for the one-day national final, to be staged at Eton College on 20 February 2016, from where the winner will qualify for the world solving championship.
The starter problem is, as usual, quite tricky. You can reduce the possibilities by bearing in mind that checking or capture first moves hardly ever work, while quiet choices can be strong candidates. If it is still tough, simple trial and error will produce a result, as will (rather faster) your silicon friend.
Good luck to all Guardian entrants, and be sure to double-check your answer.
Elsewhere Dan Fernandez, the north of England’s best young player, scored his second grandmaster result this week and now needs one more for the title. The 20-year-old, first-year mathematics student at Queens’ College, Cambridge shared first with 6.5/9 at the international tournament in Vaxjo, Sweden.
Fernandez is originally from Singapore, which he represented as a 14-year-old in the 2010 Olympiad and in the world under-20 junior championship. He continued his advance at Manchester Grammar and this spring elected to switch federations and play for England.
In a must-win game from the penultimate round at Vaxjo he used his trademark style of mixing a slow 1 b3 fianchetto with an h4-h5 assault on the black king. His opponent could not handle this strategy, and mistimed exchanges allowed the white knights to control the centre and the white rooks to invade via the b and h files. White missed a faster win by 35 Rxh6+!
Dan Fernandez v Aryan Tari, Vaxjo 2015
1 b3 e5 2 Bb2 Nc6 3 c4 g6 4 h4!? Bg7 5 h5 d6 6 e3 Be6 7 Ne2 Nge7 8 Nbc3 O-O 9 hxg6 fxg6 10 Ne4 Nf5 11 N2c3 h6 12 a3 Qd7 13 Bd3 Rae8 14 Qc2 Nfe7 15 f3 Na5?! 16 Ne2 b6 17 Nf2 c5 18 Bc3 Bf5?! 19 Bxa5 bxa5 20 Bxf5 gxf5 21 Rb1 Rb8 22 e4 fxe4 23 Nxe4 Nf5 24 N2c3 Nd4 25 Qd3 Rbd8 26 Nd5 Rf5 27 Kf2 Rdf8 28 Rh3 Qe6 29 b4 cxb4 30 axb4 axb4 31 Rxb4 Qd7 32 Qb1 Kh8? 33 Rb7 Qc6 34 Rc7 Qa6 35 Qh1? R8f7 36 Rxh6+ Kg8 37 Rxd6 Qa3 38 Rd8+ Bf8 39 Nef6+ 1-0
Here White develops his entire army on classically approved squares, yet still manages to lose in 13 moves.
Christoph Helmer v Dan Fernandez, Hastings 2014-15
1 e4 g6 2 d4 Bg7 3 Nc3 a6 4 a4 b6 5 Nf3 Bb7 6 Bc4 e6 7 0-0 d6 8 Bg5 Ne7 9 Qd2 h6 10 Bh4 Nd7 11 Rfe1 g5 12 Bg3 Ng6 13 Rad1?? g4 0-1
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