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The chess problem
Chess problem

A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a Chess puzzle set by somebody using chess pieces on a chess board, that presents the solver with a particular task to be achieved....
, like other creative forms, is best appreciated for serious artistic themes, such as those named for Grimshaw
Grimshaw (chess)

A Grimshaw is a device found in chess problems in which two black pieces arriving on a particular square mutually interfere with each other. It is named after the 19th century problem composer Walter Grimshaw....
, Novotny, and Lacny
Lacny

The Lacny or Lacny cycle is a chess problem theme named after Ludovit Lacny, the first person to demonstrate the idea in 1949.It is an example of lines of play being cyclically related: in one phase of play, the Black defences a, b and c are answered by the White mates A, B and C respectively; in another phase, those same defences a,...
. However, many chess
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
 compositions use humor as a primary or secondary element, especially in a joke chess problem.

Usually, a joke chess problem should be easy to solve, but there are exceptions. In some cases the composer plays a trick to prevent a solver from succeeding with typical analysis.






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The chess problem
Chess problem

A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a Chess puzzle set by somebody using chess pieces on a chess board, that presents the solver with a particular task to be achieved....
, like other creative forms, is best appreciated for serious artistic themes, such as those named for Grimshaw
Grimshaw (chess)

A Grimshaw is a device found in chess problems in which two black pieces arriving on a particular square mutually interfere with each other. It is named after the 19th century problem composer Walter Grimshaw....
, Novotny, and Lacny
Lacny

The Lacny or Lacny cycle is a chess problem theme named after Ludovit Lacny, the first person to demonstrate the idea in 1949.It is an example of lines of play being cyclically related: in one phase of play, the Black defences a, b and c are answered by the White mates A, B and C respectively; in another phase, those same defences a,...
. However, many chess
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
 compositions use humor as a primary or secondary element, especially in a joke chess problem.

Usually, a joke chess problem should be easy to solve, but there are exceptions. In some cases the composer plays a trick to prevent a solver from succeeding with typical analysis. In other cases the humor derives from the unusual final position. In many ordinary chess puzzle
Chess puzzle

A chess puzzle is a puzzle in which knowledge of the pieces and rules of chess is used to solve logically a chess-related problem. The longstanding popularity of chess has paved the way for a rich tradition of such chess-related puzzles and composed problems, which assume a familiarity with the pieces and rules of chess, but can set differen...
s, humor plays a secondary role because the gameplay within the solution appears to violate the inner logic of chess.

Self-solving problems



Some chess puzzles are not really puzzles at all. In the diagram at right, White is asked to checkmate
Checkmate

Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured....
 Black in six moves. The joke in this case is that, by the rules of chess, White has no choice but to checkmate Black in six moves: the only legal moves available lead directly to the "solution". The solution is 1. d4 b5 2. d5 b4 3. axb4 a3 4. b5 a2 5. b6 a1=any 6. b7 mate. Tim Krabbé
Tim Krabbé

Tim Krabb? is a Netherlands journalist and novelist.Krabb? was born in Amsterdam. His writing has appeared in most major periodicals in the Netherlands....
 provides other examples on his chess website.




Offbeat interpretations of the rules of chess



The rules of chess
Rules of chess

The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, the modern rules first took form in Italy during the 16th century....
 are fairly simple and clearly defined. Nevertheless, some composers have relied on ambiguities in the rules to create humorous puzzles. A typical example would be the position shown in the diagram on the left. According to chess legend, a composer stipulated "White mates in one move." It appears to be impossible, but the solution is for White to promote to a black knight on b7, thus depriving the black king
King (chess)

In chess, the King is the most important chess piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that he would not be able to avoid capture ....
 of his only escape square. The current FIDE rules require that a pawn
Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the weakest and most numerous chess piece in the game of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen....
 on the eighth rank must promote
Promotion (chess)

Promotion is a chess term describing the transformation of a Pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a Queen , Knight , Rook , or Bishop of the same List of chess terms#Color ....
 to a piece
Chess piece

Chess pieces vary in both value and abilities. A Rules_of_chess#Initial_setup consists of each player having the following equipment:* 1 King ...
 of the same color (see White and Black in chess
White and Black in chess

In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black." Similarly, the chess piece that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces." The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some other colors ....
).

A more sophisticated example was composed by Krabbé and relies on a loophole that existed in the definition of castling
Castling

Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rook of the same color. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook, then moving the rook onto the square over which the king crossed....
. In the diagram on the right, White must mate in three moves. The main variation is 1. e7 Kxf3 2. e8=R! (an underpromotion) Kg2 3. O-O-O-O! mate. White castles with his newly promoted rook
Rook (chess)

A rook is a chess piece in the strategy board game of chess. In the past the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes , and non-players still often call it a "castle"....
, moving his king to e3 and the rook to e2. Under the rules of chess at the time, this move was legal because the rook had not moved yet. Afterward, FIDE amended the rules to require that the castling rook must occupy the same rank as the king.




Unusual piece placement or movement



Some problems are notable for extremely unusual patterns of piece placement. For example, direct mates and especially helpmate
Helpmate

A helpmate is a kind of chess problem in which both sides cooperate in order to achieve the goal of mating black. In a helpmate in n moves, black moves first, then white, each side moving n times, to culminate in white's nth move mating black....
s have been composed with the pieces in the shape of an O, L, 2, or even a tree.

The "back home task"


A more interesting example occurs in the problem at the right, where the final position echoes a familiar pattern. Krabbé calls this problem the "back home task." He writes that "Strategy and deep themes are absent, Black only has forced moves, but it's one of the funniest chess problems I ever saw." White must selfmate
Selfmate

A selfmate is a chess problem in which white, moving first, must force black to deliver checkmate within a specified number of moves against his will....
 in eight moves; i.e., he must force Black to checkmate White against Black's will. The solution is 1.Nb1+ Kb3 2.Qd1+ Rc2 3.Bc1 axb6 4.Ra1 b5 5.Rh1 bxc4 6.Ke1 c3 7.Ng1 f3 8.Bf1 f2 mate.




The "caterpillar theme"

Krabbé named the "caterpillar theme" for problems and studies where doubled or tripled pawns move one after the other. The diagram at the left shows a particularly silly example, with White forcing mate in six moves. The solution is 1.Bb1 b2 2.Ra2 b3 3.Ra3 b4 4.Ra4 b5 5.Ra5 b6 6.Be4 mate. Krabbé wrote a whole article on the caterpillar theme, citing about ten examples.

The American composer William A. Shinkman (1847-1933) is famous for composing the problem in the diagram at the right, with sextupled pawns on the a-file. As Krabbé writes on his website, "The solution, as it should be in a joke, is not difficult: 1.0-0-0 Kxa7 2.Rd8 Kxa6 3.Rd7 Kxa5 4.Rd6 Kxa4 5.Rd5 Kxa3 6.Rd4 Kxa2 7.Rd3 Ka1 8.Ra3 mate." However, the problem is "cooked" (ruined, in the lingo of chess composition) because 1.Kd2 also forces mate in eight moves.




Humor in more traditional chess problems

Humor is a component of some traditional themes, such as grotesque
Grotesque (chess)

In chess, a grotesque is a chess problem or endgame study which features a particularly unlikely initial position, especially one in which White fights with a very small force against a much larger black army....
 and Excelsior
Excelsior (chess problem)

"Excelsior" is one of Sam Loyd's most famous chess problems, originally published in London Era in 1861, named after the poem "Excelsior " by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow....
.

In 2004, Hans Böhm sponsored a chess composing tournament for humorous endgame studies
Endgame study

An endgame study, or just study, is a composed chess position ? that is, one that has been made up rather than one from an actual game ? presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find a way for one side to win or draw, as stipulated, against any moves the other side plays....
. The top two entries appear with solutions on Krabbe's website.

See also

  • Sam Loyd
    Sam Loyd

    Samuel Loyd , born in Philadelphia and raised in New York, was an United States chess player, chess composer, puzzle author, and recreational mathematics....