The main idea being to checkmate with the bishop, this is accomplished thus:—1. B-K4 ch, K - R4; 2. Q × R, Q × Q; 3. K - B7, Q - B sq ch; 4. K × Q, BXP; 5. K - B7, B × P; 6. B - Kt6 mate.
| Position by A. Troitzky. |
White wins as follows:—
1. P-R8=Q, R - R7 ch; 2. K - Kt5, R × Q; 3. Kt - Q7 ch, K - Kt2; 4. P - B6 ch, K - R2; 5. QP × Kt, R - R sq; 6. Kt - B8 ch, R × Kt; 7. P × R=Kt mate.
| Position by Hoffer. |
A position from actual play. White plays 1. R-B5 threatening to win a piece. Black replies with the powerful Kt-Kt5, threatening two mates, and finally White (Mr Hoffer) finds an ingenious sacrifice of the Queen—the saving clause.
The following are the moves:—
1. R - B5, Kt - Kt5; 2. Q - Kt8 ch, K - Kt3; 3. Q - K6 ch, K - R2; 4. Q - Kt8 ch, and drawn by perpetual check, as Black cannot capture the Queen with K or R without losing the game.
A good chess problem exemplifies chess strategy idealized and concentrated. In examples of actual play there will necessarily remain on the board pieces immaterial to the issue (checkmate), whereas in problems the composer employs only indispensable force so as to focus attention on the idea, avoiding all material which would tend to “obscure the issue.” Hence the first object in a problem is to extract the maximum of finesse with a sparing use of the pieces, but “economy of force” must be combined with “purity of the mate.” A very common mistake, until comparatively recent years, was that of appraising the “economy” of a position according to the slenderness of the force used, but economy is not a question of absolute values. The true criterion is the ratio of the force employed to the skill demanded. The earliest composers strove to give their productions every appearance of real play, and indeed their compositions partook of the nature of ingenious end-games, in which it was usual to give Black a predominance of force, and to leave the White king in apparent jeopardy. From this predicament he was extricated by a series of checking moves, usually involving a number of brilliant sacrifices. The number of moves was rarely less than five. In the course of time the solutions were reduced to shorter limits and the beauty of quiet (non-checking) moves began to make itself felt. The early transition school, as it has been called, was the first to recognize the importance of economy, i.e. the representation of the main strategic point without any extraneous force. The mode of illustrating single-theme problems, often of depth and beauty, was being constantly improved, and the problems of C. Bayer, R. Willmers, S. Loyd, J.G. Campbell, F. Healey, “J.B.” of Bridport, and W. Grimshaw are, of their kind, unsurpassed. In the year 1845 the “Indian” problem attracted much notice, and in 1861 appeared Healey’s famous “Bristol” problem. To this period must be ascribed the discovery of most of those clever ideas which have been turned to such good account by the later school. In an article written in 1899 F.M. Teed mentions the fact that his incomplete collection of “Indians” totalled over three hundred.
In 1870 or thereabouts, the later transition period, a more general tendency was manifest to illustrate two or more finished ideas in a single problem with strict regard to purity and economy, the theory of the art received greater attention than before and the essays of C. Schwede, Kohtz and Kockelkorn, Lehner and Gelbfuss, helped to codify hitherto unwritten rules of taste. The last quarter of the 19th century, and its last decade especially, saw a marked advance in technique, until it became a common thing to find as much deep and quiet play embodied in a single first-class problem as in three or four of the old-time problems, and hence arose the practice of blending several distinct ideas in one elaborate whole.