A short account of Non Stop 4 Tournament

We are impressed. Beautiful solutions, new, efficient, creative and brilliant players, GM Sahaj Grover from India and Levon Hambardzumyan from Armenia. Yet, the tournament was won by the old players.The new ones could not understand the meaning of victory.It is explained in multiple locations on our website, so it was not our fault.But let me provide some additional explanation.A victory is a win where the computer surrenders and displays a –resign- message after the last move of the white.A winning position is not enough.
To make things absolutely clear: it can happen that, let’s say, the computer surrenders one move before a checkmate to a player playing a variant other than the one required by the author, which is, for example, a checkmate in the 30th move.If that is the case, even though the checkmate is imminent, the computer has not been actually checkmated and the solution cannot be counted as a checkmate.A checkmate is a must.
Let me also remind you that as a maximum a half of the prize is awarded for solutions other than the author’s one.
Now, let’s discuss the fourth in this year edition of the Non Stop 4 Tournament.
Problem 1 – only four moves to make. No correct solution was provided.
Problem 2.
In the previous edition of the Tournament there were 3 problems to solve: capture the queen in the 20th move and, starting from that position, achieve a victory in the 29th move and a mate in the 33th move.Nobody managed to find out how to capture the queen in the 20th move, so today we’ve shown the solution and continued with the v29 and m33 problems.
v29 – Problem 2.
Sahaj was the first to submit a solution. Unfortunately, it was an incorrect one, a certain position with no –resign- message displayed.
Manukyan from Armenia submitted a solution as the second player. Nevertheless, it was an irrelevant one – a mate in the 29th move.But it was a good solution to Problem 3.
Only the third solution was correct. It was submitted by a brilliant player from Poland, Krystian Jacek, who is the winner.
Problem 3. A difficult choice amongst many nice solutions. However, only 2 of them fulfilled the prerequisite of capturing the queen in the 20th move.And it was so simple.Just 2 moves… The undisputable winner would be Łukasz Luba, as he had the best, unbelievable time of one minute and six seconds. But he captured the queen in the 21st move, so no prize could be awarded.The authors of the 2 solutions in which the queen was captured as required are the winners.
1. Krystian Jacek – the most beautiful game, a forcing mate in 8 moves.
2. GM Gianni – a mate with a knight in 32 moves.
An honorable mention went to Sargis Manukyan, who was the fifth player to submit a solution. His solution was the quickest one, with a mate in the 28th move, but he captured the queen only in the 26th move.

Problem 4-v27, a position from the Wojtaszek-Caruana game. Nobody managed to solve it.We received two incorrect solutions. But we would like to mention Levon Hambardzumyan, whose solution included a mate in the 29th move, last 5 moves are forced. A nice solution.

And the hit of the Non Stop Tournament – Problem No. 5.With a prize of $1,000 for a solution identical with the author’s one.Nobody submitted such a solution, but we chose two solutions and awarded prizes for their beauty. You must see them! Medal Winners-Non4-5.
As an exception, we would like to show also an unsolved author’s problem, as the two rewarded solutions impressedus very much and we would like to show that we can play chess, too.

It’s amazing that nobody managed to solve Problem 1, which required only 4 moves.So, we leave the Problem available for solving. The person who is the first to submit a correct solution will be awarded the full price.New players can try to solve Problem 1 as well. Entry fee: $2.
Feel invited to play.

Non Stop 3 Tournament – a short account.

The results were generally poor. Maybe that’s because players from India, USA and Russia did not take part?
Problems 1 (with a prize of $300), 2 and 3 (2 x $150) were interconnected.The first problem was to capture the queen in the 20th move, and that solution was the key to problems 2 and 3, as they required the players to win in 29 moves and to checkmate in the 33th move, starting from the position which was the solution to problem 1.
However, nobody provided the author’s solution to problem No. 1, so there was no “continuation” in solving problems 2 and 3.
At the same time it turned out that the players submit solutions that simply “come out”.
Problem 1 – the unquestionable winner was LevonHambardzumyan.That 19 years old player from Armenia was the quickest to capture the queen. He did that in the 18th move.
Problem 2 – the winner was GM Jasto, who won in the 20th move (the shortest solution) after capturing the queen.
Problem 3 – no winner.Here the drawback of solutions other than the author’s one became apparent.The players submitted checkmates in 28, 27, and 26 moves.But after a Goldchess revision which revealed in one of those solutions a checkmate in the 23th move, all the solutions were rejected.That was done in accordance with the Goldchess Rules and Regulations.
Problem 4 – that was a very difficult one, not solved in other games. Nobody submitted a solution.
Problem 5 – a single solution, different than the author’s one, was submitted.It was a correct one.Nevertheless, as it was not a solution identical with the author’s one, and after a comparison with the quality of the author’s solution, the prize was reduced to $150.
Solutions other than the author’s one are not always worse.If they are better, we admit that and award a prize.Even double ones, as in Gold 0 Problem 3, where we awarded the Super Genius title and, of our own volition, a double prize.Check out that solution by Hayk Yeritsyan and you will understand at once what is most important and valuable for Goldchess.
To sum up, in this Non Stop 3 edition the players won only $375 out of a pool of $2100.You must admit that it’s not an impressive result.But we need to look into the future with optimism.Things will become better.And that’s what we wish you.Sincerely, as Goldchess is about the fun of creating the beauty of chess, and we want you to create it with us and win.
Goldchess team

First edition of the Non Stop Tournament in 2017

Outstanding problems, thrilling emotions. The players managed to solve only 1 out of 5 problems. They did not provide any solution identical with the author’s one, although for problem 3 they submitted a solution better than the one devised by the author. But one thing at a time. Game 1, time: 10 minutes, two solutions. Problem: capture the queen in the 15th move. The first solution was a witty one. The player (IM) captured the queen one move earlier – in the 14th one – but was checkmated in the 15th move. . The problem can be found amongst the featured solutions as an example of brilliant play by… our computer.  For the player – a consolation prize of $50.
Problem 2, time: 10 minutes, 2 solutions, both with time-out, provided after the lapse of the set time. One of them was bad, v21, the other one was better, but late. Oh, excuse me. There is also a third one, with a time of 1 hour 47 seconds. Timeout. Knockout. 
Problem 3 was the only one where the players showed some skill. Although no solution identical with the author’s one was submitted, there were 4 other solutions. One was handed in after the lapse of the time limit, three received some token prizes. The games are available in Winners-Non1-3, 2017.
Problem 4, time: 15 minutes, one solution, checkmate in the 34th move. Not to the point, as the task was as follows: win in the 30th move and time-out, time: 21 minutes.
Problem 5. The same position, as in problem 4, but a checkmate with a pawn in the 31st move is required to win. Nobody submitted a solution, although the time limit for this problem was the longest one – half an hour. The prize was $100, and we also proposed that the player submitting a correct solution would receive ANY title he or she wanted.
Those of you who have read carefully our announcements know that the last Non Stop Tournament in 2016 was unlucky for the players. The beginning of the new year was similar. Is that a temporary slump in form? Or do we need some new strength, talented players, amateurs and professionals?
Therefore, we invite you to take part on 14 January in the 2nd Edition of the Non Stop Tournament, and to play our free games – Genius Test, Gold 0 ( for players not older than 16), and Grandmaster Corner, for Grandmasters, with a prize of $1,000.
Best greetings,
Goldchess team