Chess
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.White to play and mate in five.
This problem by A. Popandopoulo won first prize in a Soviet chess magazine problem composing tournament in 1940.
White's problem here is how to dig the black king out of its bunker. With both black knights pinned, there is clearly a danger of stalemate, so White must find something to do before moves of the black f-pawn run out. The proto-solution must therefore begin something like this: White plays a move; Black plays fxe6 or fxg6; White unpins one of the black knights; White plays another move; the knight hops right back where it came from ... and then what?
Somewhere along the line, White must get rid of one of those knights without delivering stalemate. Of course, if he could capture the knight with check, it might even be mate, and that's the clue to the answer.
The knight on g1 can only move to e2 or f3, both of which could be controlled by a bishop on the d1-h5 diagonal; the knight on g2 can only move to e1, e3, f4 and h4, all of which can be covered by a rook on e4. Now all we have to do is put all the pieces together. The basic line works like this: 1.Ra1! fxe6 2.Bb1! Ne2 3.Bc2+ Ng1 4.Bd1 Ne2 (or Nf3) 5.Bxe2 (Bxf3) mate; or 1...fxg6 2.Rd5! Nf4 (or anywhere else) 3.Rd4+ Ng2 4.Re4! any 5.RxN mate. Just two more lines tidy up loose ends: 1...f6+ 2.Kf5 fxe5 3.Rxc4 e4 4.Rxe4 and 5.RxN mate; and 1...f5 2.Bh5 f4 3.Bd1! f3 4.Qxf3! Nxf3 5.Bxf3 mate.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments