Every year, during this holiday season, I like to put forth some joyful amusement with completely wacky and wild and even witty compositions. Today’s problem is a “task problem” taken from H.R. Agnel’s classic book “Chess for Winter Evenings” (1848), and the problem is from the chapter “The Midnight Challenge” or “Christmas in Russia.” The latter title seems appropriate for today. Your task is to mate Black with that trailing g-pawn. You may not promote any of the pawns! It takes 12 moves, a number just like the twelve days of Christmas. It’s actually quite logical, and the first three moves are easy. Also, at one point, the Black king will be doing a lot of shuffling back and forth. That’s enough of a gift of a hint for you!

1.Kb7 Ke8 2.Kc7 Kf8 3.Kd7 Kg8 4.e7 Kh8 5.Ke6 Kg8 6.Kf5 Kh8 7.Kg4 Kg8 8.Kh4 Kh8 9.Kh5 Kg8 10.f7+ Kh8 11.g7+ Kh7 12.g6#

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.