Chess for SATURDAY, Jan. 23, with illustration

Tony’s Phoenix Problem: White moves and wins.

The legendary phoenix was a bird that consumed itself in fire every 500 years, then recreated itself from the ashes. Tony’s Mystery Problem of Dec. 19 burned itself up because the knight that was supposed to be on c3 managed to nestle on c2, blocking the solution.

The result, of course, is that Ron Evers is absolutely correct in writing that white cannot win.

Now that we know the knight on c2 dashed white’s chances and that he should have stayed on c3, we expect our chess analysts to go to work on the proper solution. Good luck.

The 1992 Pan-American Team Chess champions are from the University of Minnesota. The team consisted of Jack Yoos, Leonard Johnson, William Harrison and Brian Campbell. To win the University of Minnesota team beat the University of Illinois at Chicago, State University of New York at Buffalo, University of Michigan, Michigan Technological University, and Brooklyn College for a perfect 6-0 and first place.

Michigan Tech, which scored 5-1, took second place. State University of New York at Buffalo tied with the University of Illinois at Urbana, 1991 champion, for third with 4 1/2-1 1/2. Brooklyn College, Harvard, New York University, and Rhode Island College tied for fifth with 4-2.

Top Board One player was Mikhail Braude of Rhode Island College; Board Two player, Yuri Spokoyny of Brooklyn College; Board Three player tied with William Harrison of Minnesota and Sidath Gunewardena of the University of Pennsylvania; Board Four player, Brian Campbell of the University of Minnesota.

Solution: It is still true that black can win by 1 … Nf4+, 2.Ke1 Nxg2 checkmate. But white moves first and there lies the chance to turn the tables. Note that the white queen knight is where it should have been, before. We will give a 1993 Maine Chess Association membership and six months of Chess Horizons magazine for the best solution, judged by Tony Adkins. Send solutions to CHESS, c/o Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329.