It has been great fun hearing from long time readers of this column. Quite a few have written to tell me how much they’ve learned from the puzzles. I have tried to mix pure enjoyment composed problems (mate in two, three, etc.) with practical game positions. With the practical ones, I’ve tried to keep pointing out themes. Today’s position is from Ward-Downey from 1901 and tests whether you remember one of those themes. I hope you do! There’s something amiss in Black’s position. Can you take advantage of it?

Solution:

Three previous themes are in operation here: the weakness on f7 left by the rook moving to e8; the Lucena mate which appears in several of the variations; the idea that this position will have several variations that will require you to think about the other things your opponent may do other than cooperate with your main idea. Here’s what happened: 1.d6 Bxd6 [1...Bxf3 2.dxe7 Bxe2 3.exd8=Q Raxd8 4.Bxe2] 2.Bxf7+ Kxf7 [2...Kh8 3.Bxe8 Bxf4 4.Bxd7 Nxd7 5.Qe6 Bc8 6.Qe4] 3.Ng5+ Kg6 [3...Kf8 4.Bxd6+ Kg8 5.Qc4+ Nd5 6.Rxd5 Bxd5 7.Qxd5+ Kh8 8.Nf7+ Kg8 9.Nh6+ Kh8 10.Qg8+ Rxg8 11.Nf7#; 3...Kg8 4.Qc4+ Kh8 5.Nf7+ Kg8 6.Nh6+ Kh8 7.Qg8+ Nxg8 8.Nf7#] 4.Qc2+ Kh5 [4...Be4 5.Ncxe4 Bxf4 6.Nd6+ Ne4 7.Ngxe4 Rf8 8.Ng3+ Kh6 9.Ndf5+ Rxf5 10.Nxf5+ Kg5 11.Qe4 g6 12.Rd5 gxf5 13.Qxf5+ Kh6 14.Qxf4+] 5.Qf5 Bxf4 6.Ne6+ g5 7.Rd3 with mate in 5. Work that out on your own. As we have counseled in the past, once you see the solution it is important for your growth to go back to the original position, cover the solution, and see if you can do it all mentally in your head. Keep repeating until you get it right!

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