Sunday Chess Problem

The last two installments of this series have seen some pretty heavy problems. So, this week I'd like to lighten the mood. The problem below calls for selfmate in two, and it was composed by me! It was published in the May 2014 issue of The Problemist.



Recall that white is always moving up the board and black is always moving down. So, black's pawns on the second rank are poised to promote (though that fact is not relevant to the problem). Also recall that in a selfmate, white plays first and forces black to give checkmate in no more than the stipulated number of moves. Black, for his part, struggles mightily to avoid giving checkmate. It's a complete inversion of normal chess logic!

Now, down to business. It's not hard to spot that the main idea revolves around the black rook/knight battery on the e-file. If white can force the black knight to move under the right circumstances, then white will be checkmated by the discovered check from black's rook. There are two obstacles in white's path. The first is that black's knight is pinned. The second is that currently his king has a flight square on d6. In a selfmate it's a bad thing for white's king to have flight squares!

Let's see how white deals with these issues. The key move is 1. Qa3!



White is threatening 2. Qf8+, after which black is forced to reply with 2. ... Nf5 mate.



Black has two defenses to this threat.

The first is 1. ... Bb4:



This block's the white queen's path to f8. But it also guards d6 and opens a new line for white's queen. Play continues 2. Qa8+ Nd5 mate:



The alternative defense is 1. ... Qxa3:

This rather unsubtly defeats the threat, but it also guards d6 and unpins the black knight. Play continues 2. Bg2+ Ng2 mate:



So we have three different unpins of the black knight and three different ways of covering d6, with sweeping white queen moves throughout. Hopefully that's entertaining enough to justify the somewhat heavy construction.

See you next week!

More like this

To this point in our Sunday Chess Problem series, we have considered one endgame study and two “direct mates.” While the diagram positions we have considered may have seemed a bit fanciful, we have not yet fiddled with the basic logic of the game itself. Which is to say that even if the position…
Last week's problem, though undoubtedly clever and imaginative, was not really typical of modern selfmates. So, let us spend one more week with this genre, this time considering a real heavy-duty, barn-burner of a composition. It comes from Uri Avner, a prominent composer from Israel, and was…
Our diagram position today was composed by Joseph Babson in 1927. The stipulation is selfmate in three: Recall that in a selfmate, white plays first and forces black to give checkmate. That's right! White is trying to get checkmated, while black is doing everything in his power to avoid…
I have been shamefully derelict in my Sunday Chess Problem responsibilities. But that ends now! To get us back into the swing of things, I have selected one of my own. The following diagram calls for selfmate in five: This was published in the June 1992 issue of the British Chess Magazine.…

Entertaining indeed. Nice key move, particularly due to the first defense ,imho.

By Bill McNeal (not verified) on 11 Jan 2015 #permalink

Glad you liked it!

You never answered my question from last week, though. Will I be seeing you in Parsippany?

Oops, never looked at your reply. I can't play Parsippany this year, but I do look forward to stopping by to see the troops, peruse the books etc. on the Sunday. Figure that as a 75% chance , barring weather & unforeseen circumstances.

By Bill McNeal (not verified) on 12 Jan 2015 #permalink

Great problem.

What sort of problems have you constructed? Are they all mates or self-mates?

Hi Jr. Thanks for the kind words about my problem. Most of my problems are selfmates, helpmates and fairies. I've compose very few direct mates an no endgame studies. For me, chess composition is an escape from regular chess, and direct mates and studies remind me too much of regular play!

I would love to see some of your fairy chess problems.