Puzzle #68: White to Play; White to Tinue

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Here's a quick game I played against Aaaarghbot earlier this week. Next week, I'll try to do a size 6 puzzle.

For the purpose of this puzzle, Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (Black, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (White) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. And, remember to add the r/Tak spoiler tag to your solution so as not to ruin it for others. To do this, put your answer in brackets and follow with (/spoiler). Ex:  [26. a3- Sa3](/spoiler).

There are 2 different Tinue branches that I found with this game. You can post either or both. There could certainly be more!

I believe all responses by Black are singular and forced. If the response is not singular and forced, then any response results in the same following move by White or the defensive moves by Black have ready responses by White and those defense/offense pairs are interchangeable in regards to order. Of course, I could have made a mistake...in that case, let me know so I can fix it or, at least, apologize.

P.S  If you have suggestions for content, just let me know via comments on this blog, r/Tak, Discord, or email.

Enjoy!

Puzzle #67: White to Play; Best Move

Evening all!

Here's an end game that I got into with Takkenbot. There were a few possible puzzle spots in this game, but I chose this one as a good example of a Best Move puzzle.

What would you do in this situation? Why?

Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. And, remember to add the r/Tak spoiler tag to your solution so as not to ruin it for others. To do this, put your answer in brackets and follow with (/spoiler). Ex:  [26. a3- Sa3](/spoiler).

Enjoy!

My new 6x6 board!

I finally finished my board! I've been slowly gathering the materials for this and chipping away at pieces of the project for the past year. I still haven't had time to play a proper game on it, but maybe I'll con one of the kids to play against me :)

The flat stones are made from red oak and tulip poplar limbs. I cut the limbs last year and let them season under cover so that when I made them into cane pieces, the rounds wouldn't split. They have 3 coats of spray polyurethane on them. The dark pieces look far superior. Maybe that will offset the FPA...

The capstones are the inaugural USTA membership gift. They work quite nicely with the board.

The board itself is an 18x18 tile with furniture sliders glued under it so that it doesn't scratch up whatever it rests on. On top of that, I glued a mosaic backsplash that I found last year at Lowe's. I removed the backing and spaced the tiles on the board. They are held down with Liquid Nails Small Projects adhesive. The moss is sheet moss that I found at Walmart. It took 2 sheets to find enough usable green. I used the same adhesive to attach the moss. To seal the moss and tile, I sprayed 3 coats of Flex Seal clear on. Otherwise, the moss would be more prone to flaking off.

My first board was a 5x5 in a very standard pattern. It was fun to make (especially the drawstring bag), but I wanted something that was more interesting, as well as in a larger size. My sister is enjoying my first board since last year when I gave it to her as a birthday gift.

Puzzle #66: White to Play; White to Tinue

Hi all!

This week's puzzle is from one of my tournament games on Saturday. I missed this Tinue due to time pressure (I counted flats and decided that it would be a Gaelet win (if I didn't time out), so, decided to go for that). With under 30 seconds on the clock and a 5 second increment, I thought it was the safer bet.

For the purpose of this puzzle, Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (Black, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (White) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. And, remember to add the r/Tak spoiler tag to your solution so as not to ruin it for others. To do this, put your answer in brackets and follow with (/spoiler). Ex:  [26. a3- Sa3](/spoiler).

There are 2 different ways to achieve Tinue in 1 move from this board state. You can post 1 or both, or see if you can find more, I'm far from infallible.

If interested in seeing the game to this point, here it is.

Have fun!

Puzzle #65: What Would You Have Done Differently?

Good evening, Takkers!

I had a super busy week at work, so I didn't have time to seek out a good Tinue puzzle. Luckily for you, fwwwwibib provided 2 Tinues during our tournament match this afternoon.

Here is a link to the second game.

The first game is what I wanted to post tonight. Since the Tinue ending is given away, I didn't think that part would make a good puzzle. But, I wanted to see what you guys would have done differently in my shoes. I have my own thoughts after reviewing the game, but thought it might be fun to see it from a different perspective.

In other news, I finished my new 6x6 board and pieces and am excited to get some pictures of it now that it's done curing. I'll hopefully post some with next week's puzzle.

I'm attending an out of town wedding next Saturday, so the puzzle may be delayed until Sunday.


Without further ado, here's the game in question: