Dear Readers,
Due to being busy working as the Mathematics teacher at the beautiful Musica Mundi School in Waterloo, Belgium, I don’t currently play many competitive chess games, but I do still very often think of dear chess friends all over the world. For instance, I would like to wish a super-happy birthday for tomorrow to Anuurai Sainbayar, a lovely lady chessplayer whom I met in August at the British Championships in Torquay with other friends there, including Gregg Hutchence, GM Keith Arkell and Midhun Unnikrishnan.
We all laughed a lot there, and now, here in Blog Post #136, I have a sort of mathematical curiosity/tongue-twister for everyone, featuring the number 136 ! It’s this: 136 is the sum of the cubes of the digits of the sum of the cubes of its digits !! Let’s see why that is so… First, 1 cubed + 3 cubed + 6 cubed = 1 + 27 + 216 = 244. Then, 2 cubed + 4 cubed + 4 cubed = 8 + 64 + 64 = 136 ♥😊♥
Early Birthday Puzzle about Anuurai ♥
As it’s 18 October today, I offer you this quick, fun puzzle about the new age that Anuurai will be on her birthday tomorrow… The sum of the squares of the digits in Anuurai’s new age will be 18. What will be Anuurai’s new age? Feel free to send in your answer, if you like ♥😊♥
Tuesday lunchtimes are special treats this year at Musica Mundi School because we have a fun club for all students, teachers and other friends here who are interested in playing and discussing fascinating chess games and puzzles.
who also loves chess at the school ♥
As I know that Emile, Guillaume, Hoi Yuet, Jan V-L, Peter The Great, Raphaël, Steven, Timothée, Wout and others love sparkling attacking chess moves just as much as Anuurai does, we had several wonderful examples today 😊
(which is actually a study from almost 136 years ago!!) ♥
Have a wonderful day, dear friends, and keep a smile on your face and a rainbow in your heart ♥😊♥
With kindest wishes as always,
Paul M😊twani ♥
P.S. = Puzzle Solutions
- White wins with 1 Bxh6!, intending 1…gxh6 2 Qg6+ Kh8 3 Qxh6+ Kg8 4 Rae1 Qd6 5 Qg5+ Kh7 6 Re4 Qg6 7 Rh4+ and the loose bishop on c5 will be captured for free.
- The line 1 Qd2+ Kc5 2 Qb4+ Kd5 3 Qc4+ Kd6 (or 3…Ke5 4 Qc5+ Ke4 5 Qc2+, skewering Black’s king & queen) 4 Qd4+ Kmoves 5 Qa7+ emphasises the winning theme of skewers in this elegant study.
- Black wins quickly with 1…exf2++ 2 Kxf2 (or 2 Kd2 Qe1+ 3 Kc2 fxg1=Q) 2…Qe1+ 3 Kf3 Qg3#.
- White avoids promoting the h-pawn to a queen or bishop (which would result immediately in stalemate), and instead wins with 1 h8=R Nb1 2 Rh1! c3 3 Rh4! Na3+ (3…Nd2 is similar) 4 Kxc3 Nb1+ 5 Kc2 Na3+ 6 Kb3 Nb1 7 Rd4 (7 Rh2 is equally effective) 7…Na3 8 Rd2 and mate follows on White’s next move! ♥
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13
Paul Motwani 