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Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

It is enjoyable to hear from readers, especially when emails come from other countries. Siegfried Hornecker wrote in to respond to our 4 knight promotions problem and to inform us that there were problems with more than four.. One reader cited Chernev’s Chessboard Magic having a 5 knight task, but our European correspondent came up with more than that! In fact, he has a very entertaining free e-book on this at http://chessproblem.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=840.

Also writing us was Steven Dowd, who lets us know that the Leow composition from the 1846 Illustrated London News had dual solutions, not a good thing by modern standards. Rather than just point out the error, Mr. Dowd then corrected it by putting a White pawn on e2 when the solution would be 1. Nh6! Ke5 2. Bc1 2. .. e3 3. Kb3 Kd4 4. Bb2# 2... Kd5 3. Bb2 Ke5 4. Kc4#. Much thanks to both these gentlemen!

Mr. Dowd also sent along today’s problem. It’s a mate in four. He points out that composed problems can have practical applications. This one does. It’s an example of the Anastasia mate. Since we’re getting back to practical positions, this composition is a nice transition to our week’s theme on this type of mate. Have fun!


Solution:

If you went with 1.Rd1, Black can castle; however, if White puts the rook on d1 by means of castling, then Black’s castling to avoid the mate on d8 is to no avail:

1.0–0–0 0–0 2.Ne7+ Kh8 3.Qxh7+ Kxh7 4.Rh1# Although this position, composed by Mirko Degenkolbe in 1992, is contrived, it happens in practical play. Next time out, we will look at an example of this.

 

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.


 

 

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