“You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas.” Stanley Kubrick
Vladimir Nabokov composed chess problems. Here's a clever one from 1932: "White retracts its last move and mates in one."
This is an instance of retrograde analysis: Of the many legal moves that White might just have made, only one can be revised to yield an immediate mate. Can you find it?
posted by Neil at 2:37 AM
âThe Pin is mightier than the swordâ
(Fred Reinfeld)
âCombinations have always been the most intriguing aspect of Chess.
The masters look for them, the public applauds them, the critics
praise them. It is because combinations are possible that Chess
is more than a lifeless mathematical exercise. They are the
poetry of the game; they are to Chess what melody is to
music. They represent the triumph of mind over matterâ
(Reuben Fine)
1 Comments:
I don't get it, Neil. If the pawn on d7 underpromotes to a knight... why is it mate? Can't the black king simply play Kxc7 then???
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