Tactics Time Chess Newsletter: Book Cover Contest Results!
Published: Wed, 09/12/12
| Newsletter Issue: Pawn Stars | Tactics Time | ||||||||
| Pawn Stars | |||||||||
In the position on the right it is White to move.
Answer below. Today I would like to share the results of the chess book cover competition that we had a few weeks ago.
As you may recall, Anthea Carson and I are working on a chess tactics eBook for the Amazon Kindle that is coming out in time for Christmas.
The project is coming along really well!
We used a couple of the chess players at the Colorado Open who are in our "target audience" (adult class level chess players) as human "guinea pigs". The feedback was great, and the problems seemed to be about the right level of difficulty that we were going for.
So we are both really excited about the project!
I had several people come up to me at the Colorado Open and tell me that they enjoyed the Book cover competition. I also got a ton of great feedback from twitter, facebook and e-mail as well about the book covers.
Chess players love their chess books!
I was really impressed at a lot of the comments. Some people really knew a lot about good design principles, and thought of things that I never would have considered. People spent a lot of time thinking about the covers they liked best, which was really appreciated!
In the end there was a pretty clear winner. You can read a detailed summary of the voting here: http://tacticstime.com/chess-books/chess-tactics-ebook-design-competition-results/
This was the winning cover (and what it will look like inside a Kindle Fire):
 This one had a lot of things that people liked, and didn't have a lot of the negatives that cost the other designs rating points.
If you are interested, check out the blog post, and you can read how all 8 covers finished, their final scores, and what some of the comments were for each one. I found it really interesting.
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to vote! I really appreciate that!!
Here is the complete game:
[Event "Olympiad"] [Site "0:09.29-0:00.02"] [Date "2012.09.06"] [Round "09"] [White "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Black "Kramnik, Vladimir"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteTitle "GM"] [WhiteElo "2778"] [WhiteCountry "USA"] [BlackTitle "GM"] [BlackElo "2797"] [BlackCountry "RUS"] [Remark "Olympiad M 01.1"] [PresId "1000090011"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. c4 c6 5. d4 d5 6. cxd5 cxd5 7. Nc3 Ne4 8. Qb3 Nxc3 9. bxc3 O-O 10. Nd2 e6 11. e4 Nc6 12. O-O Na5 13. Qd1 Qc7 14. Qf3 b6 15. Ba3 Rd8 16. e5 Ba6 17. Rfe1 Rac8 18. Bb4 Bh6 19. Qd1 Nc6 20. Ba3 Na5 21. Bb4 Nc6 22. Ba3 Na5 23. Nb1 b5 24. h4 Nc6 25. Bc5 Qb8 26. Qe2 Na5 27. Nd2 Rxc5 28. dxc5 Qc8 29. Nf3 Qxc5 30. Nh2 Bg7 31. h5 g5 32. h6 Bxh6 33. Qh5 Bg7 34. Qxg5 Nc6 35. Ng4 Qe7 36. Qxe7 Nxe7 37. a4 d4 38. axb5 Bxb5 39. Rxa7 d3 40. Rxe7 d2 41. Rd1 Be2 42. Ne3 Bxe5 43. c4 h5 44. Ra7 h4 45. Ra2 Bxd1 46. Nxd1 hxg3 47. fxg3 Bxg3 48. c5 f5 49. Ra7 e5 50. c6 e4 51. Bh3 Rc8 52. Ra6 Rf8 53. Ra5 f4 54. Kf1 e3 55. Ke2 Rf6 56. Ra8+ Kg7 57. Ra7+ Rf7 58. Rb7 Kf6 59. Kf3 Re7 60. Rxe7 Kxe7 61. c7 e2 62. c8N+ Kf6 63. Kxe2 Ke5 64. Nb6 Kd4 65. Bg2 Be1 66. Nd5 Ke5 67. Nb4 Bh4 68. Nd3+ Kf5 69. Kxd2 Kg4 70. Ke2 Bf6 71. N1f2+ Kg3 72. Bf3 Bd8 73. Ne4+ Kh4 74. Ne5 Bc7 75. Ng6+ Kh3 76. Ne7 Bd8 77. Nf5 Bb6 78. Kf1 Kh2 79. Bg4 f3 80. Nh4 1-0 This is a really amazing position, and looks like a composed problem.
White has a pawn on the 7th rank about to queen.
Black has 2 pawns that are about to queen.
If white just grabs the e pawn right away with 62. Kxe2, then black has the discovered attack, 62...f3+! which allows black to play 63...Bxc7 on the next move, creating a drawn position.
If white promotes his c pawn to a queen, then black will do the same (with check!)
So because of this, white played the amazing 62. c8N+!! which is the only move that wins.
After black gets out of check, white can play Kxe2 and Kxd2, and is up two pieces.
Happy Tactics! Your Friend,
 P.S. Here is the link again with the results of the book voting: http://tacticstime.com/chess-books/chess-tactics-ebook-design-competition-results/ Thanks again for your feedback and participation!!
 Like Tactics Time on Facebook.
 If you know someone who could benefit from this, please feel free to forward it to them! Not a subscriber yet? Like what you read? Sign up to get future issues delivered straight to you at http://tacticstime.com!
© Copyright 2011-2012 Timothy Brennan, All Rights Reserved. | |||||||||
Pawn endings are to chess what putting is to golf. ~ Cecil Purdy
| Tactics Time | Podcasts | Product Information | 101 Tactical Tips | Unsubscribe to this newsletter |