Skiing Chess Mekrijärvi Championships
5.3.2013




The 2nd Skiing Chess Mekrijärvi Championships was organized in Mekrijärvi Research Station (Ilomantsi) during the ECSE Winter workshop. Games were played on Mekrijärvi lake. Nine brave men and one woman participated this "manly game" as Kristiina described it, forming the following teams: 
  1. Panton:    Pasi Fränti, Anton Afanasyev
  2. Virmaksim: Olli Virmajoki, Rudolf Haraksim
  3. Malircea:  Mikko Malinen, Andrei Tabarcea
  4. Karakri:   Karol Waga, Radu Mariescu-Istodor, Kristiina Mahkonen

Rules

One team member must complete by skiing 50m distance to a turning point and back, after which the team can make their move on chess board. If the team had 3 players, one must wait at the turning point and the skiing task was divided among two players. Normal chess rules apply except no turns: move can be made immediately when the team is ready independent on the other team. Game ends when the opponent king is chechmated. Since there are no turns, Zugzwang and stalemate rules do not apply.

Game results

Semi-finals: 
Panton - Karakri      1-0   21 min
Virmaksim - Malircea  1-0   26 min
Final: 
Panton - Virmaksim    1-0   21 min

Tournament story

First two games were good fights but nothing surprising in the results. Team Panton won Team KaRaKri after 21 minutes long game, after which Team Virmaksim won team Malircea in 26 minutes. The final was played soon after with the semi-final winning teams. This game turned out to be possibly the most eventful game that was ever played.

In the opening, black managed to lure white into a silly mistake letting their queen+king to be pinned by a bishop. Black steadily managed to put pressure on white side by a Queen-Rook attack at the second rank and capturing more peaces. Instead of killing white slow piece-by-piece, black took another strategy by making continuous threats against white's king aiming at checkmate. This was perfectly sound strategy as constant checks would prevent white from any counter-play. Even gaining an extra move by out-skiing the opponent would not help much. Checkmate was waiting behind the corner like hanging sword.

White's king, however, had another plan. Not a very realistic but a plan anyway. While the king was forced to march all the way to the 6th rank (picture below), it was not only a safety spot for the king, but it was white's last attempt - king supported counter-attack. Although nothing much to attack with, white managed to cause enough confusion by a simple checking move Ng7+. Black was simply not prepared for this.

What happened is that black started straighforward mate-in-three maneuver by Rf1+ and went on skiing, but this was an illegal move and he was soon called back as his own king was in check. This caused some confusion and wasting valuable time. Black knight was also pinned and could not capture the attacking knight either. So black decided to move king in safety by Kf8. This was basically allright but since white had went on skiing and already returning half-way from the turning point, black was surprisingly going to face serious troubles.

In this position, there seems to be nothing much to do by white: maybe Nxe6+ following by fxe6 Rxe6. The rook needed to access the last rank but it was not easily reachable. However, with a little help of the knigt, white found out a simple winning maneuver: Rxe6!. Now, this would of course not work in normal chess but on skiing track white was catching up black, and this time it was Pasi vs Olli in pure skiing speed. Pasi passed Olli and white got to move first and - check-mate by Re8X. :-)

King's long march to f6
Knight's counter-attack
Take knight - ski faster - checkmate
Kc1-c2-d3-d4-e5-f6
1. Ng7+ Kf8
2. Rxe6 --- 3. Re8X

Pictures

(under construction)

Pictures in Mopsi
Pictures of DMPR workshop

All tournaments