A memorial Pente puzzle for Rollie Tesh - RIP Rollie
Posted:
Apr 4, 2019, 6:13 PM
It was with great sadness that I learned last night that Rollie Tesh passed away earlier this year. He was truly a Pente legend, having first played the wedge as P1, successfully analysed the hammer position, created the awesome Pente puzzle Quincunx, proposed the Pente variant Keryo Pente and won the 1983 Pente Championship in Boston among other Pente achievements.
I can think of no more fitting tribute I can make to his Pente greatness than to post for you here as a puzzle the only live game he played here as a demonstration of how far outside the box you would need to think to beat his live first player Pente game even when he was rusty. The second player can make a move somewhere in this game to guarantee herself a sure win in nine moves. Can you find a winning move (and the continuation) against Tesh's player one? PM me if you think you know the answer to this puzzle. Now, if your name isn't Scott Justice, do you think you could have found a player two win in a timed over the board game against him in his prime?
Tom Braunlich told me in an email that Rollie's sisters "put his ashes in balloons, filled them with helium, and let them go."
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Re: A memorial Pente puzzle for Rollie Tesh - RIP Rollie
Posted:
Apr 6, 2019, 6:54 AM
Just to clarify here, the win in nine moves includes the move which diverges from the line this game took and assumes that player one prolongs the game as much as possible. And, I don't need a complete beginning to end solution, just the first five moves by player two will be sufficient.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Re: A memorial Pente puzzle for Rollie Tesh - RIP Rollie
Posted:
Mar 16, 2020, 3:47 AM
Figuring out where the puzzle diverges from the game is part of the puzzle. I know that's not standard, but I figured a Tesh memorial puzzle deserved to be extra tough
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Posts:
26
Registered:
Jun 1, 2019
From:
Richardson, TX
Re: A memorial Pente puzzle for Rollie Tesh - RIP Rollie
Posted:
Mar 16, 2020, 11:54 PM
I'm going in circles and maybe overthinking this... P2 can wrestle away momentum at move 7, but like grabbing a dog by the ears, I don't know where to go from there.
Move 7 P2-L11 A threat of a capture at N8 then at N11 kills white's attempt at a tessera and takes away momentum. I assume white will see this and block instead of pushing forward with a M10 or even a J10
White blocking at H11 is a death sentence since Black will go to N11 then take 2 captures at N8. So...
Move 8 P1 M11 P2 H11
Move 9 P1 G11 P2 N8???
This is where I think I am falling apart here... P1 can wrestle back momentum quite easily with L12 and eventually J12 to slice and dice P2 with captures.
Re: A memorial Pente puzzle for Rollie Tesh - RIP Rollie
Posted:
Mar 17, 2020, 12:21 AM
Up2ng's post on this page https://www.pente.org/gameServer/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=1&threadID=4561&messageID=19793 goes into some details on 7. ... L11, which several of us explored in depth for a couple if hous around that time without finding a successful line for P2 (which doesn't mean one doesn't exist, of course). When I have a bit more time I'll take a look at your ideas in more depth.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Re: A memorial Pente puzzle for Rollie Tesh - RIP Rollie
Posted:
Mar 18, 2020, 12:31 AM
Sorry, I thought you were diverging from the game line at move 9 with O9, rather than continuing a divergence at move 7. I'll take a fresh look later tonight.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Re: A memorial Pente puzzle for Rollie Tesh - RIP Rollie
Posted:
Mar 18, 2020, 7:45 PM
"Move 7 P2-L11 A threat of a capture at N8 then at N11 kills white's attempt at a tessera and takes away momentum. I assume white will see this and block instead of pushing forward with a M10 or even a J10
White blocking at H11 is a death sentence since Black will go to N11 then take 2 captures at N8. So...
Move 8 P1 M11 P2 H11
Move 9 P1 G11" with P2 O9 is very good! So far at least, I have my doubts that P1 will be able to win it... but in defense of my puzzle I think that P1 may be able to hold out for longer than nine moves against the divergence starting with 7. ... L11 and continuing with 8. ... H11 and 9. ... O9
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
