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CHESSBOARD
PROBLEMS.
"You and I will goe to the chesse."
GREENE'S Groatsworth of Wit.
During a heavy gale a chimney-pot was hurled through the air, and crashed
upon the pavement just in front of a pedestrian. He quite calmly said, "I have
no use for it: I do not smoke." Some readers, when they happen to see a puzzle
represented on a chessboard with chess pieces, are apt to make the equally
inconsequent remark, "I have no use for it: I do not play chess." This is
largely a result of the common, but erroneous, notion that the ordinary chess
puzzle with which we are familiar in the press (dignified, for some reason, with
the name "problem") has a vital connection with the game of chess itself. But
there is no condition in the game that you shall checkmate your opponent in two
moves, in three moves, or in four moves, while the majority of the positions
given in these puzzles are such that one player would have so great a
superiority in pieces that the other would have resigned before the situations were
reached. And the solving of them helps you but little, and that quite
indirectly, in playing the game, it being well known that, as a rule, the best
"chess problemists" are indifferent players, and vice versa. Occasionally
a man will be found strong on both subjects, but he is the exception to the
rule.
Yet the simple chequered board and the characteristic moves of the pieces
lend themselves in a very remarkable manner to the devising of the most
entertaining puzzles. There is room for such infinite variety that the true
puzzle lover cannot afford to neglect them. It was with a view to securing the
interest of readers who are frightened off by the mere presentation of a
chessboard that so many puzzles of this class were originally published by me in
various fanciful dresses. Some of these posers I still retain in their disguised
form; others I have translated into terms of the chessboard. In the majority of
cases the reader will not need any knowledge whatever of chess, but I have
thought it best to assume throughout that he is acquainted with the terminology,
the moves, and the notation of the game.
I first deal with a few questions affecting the chessboard itself; then with
certain statical puzzles relating to the Rook, the Bishop, the Queen, and the
Knight in turn; then dynamical puzzles with the pieces in the same order; and,
finally, with some miscellaneous puzzles on the chessboard. It is hoped that the
formulæ and tables given at the end of the statical puzzles will be of interest,
as they are, for the most part, published for the first time.
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