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Shelby Lyman: On ChessQR QN QB Q K KB KN KRWHITEWhite mates in 3lt;r% *Chess Self-DestructThose who find in chess the fiendish sublimation of a sinister unconscious, tending to Oedipal complexes, patricide, etc., can easily gloat over what happens as many games come to a close.. For almost inevitably, if a game is played out to mate, a reverse logic begins to take place.The right to move becomes a mechanism of self-destructiveness. Notonly is one’s move used against oneself, but it becomes a necessary link in the opponent’s winning effort. Without your move he either cannot win, or cannot win so easily.Of course we call such a situation: “Zugzwang;” and we have seen it before, though few examples of Zugzwang are as exemplary as our problem today.Our first diagram shows that problem. A couple of pieces onBLACKdO NO 90 O X 9X NX dXeach side, and white to mate in three moves.What could be easier? But in fact, even very strong players have faltered and floundered before they found the solution.The reader may try. But he should keep in mind that black’s moves will not stop or slow down the mate. They will instead hasten that end.It is white’s move. Ask yourself what white will do in response to each possible first black move, then make the necessary adjustment in the white position the correct first move — toI .achieve the three-move mate in everV case.Using that procedure, you wall find that though black has four legal moves, tw'o of them (king directly up or back) offer the most prosaic solutions. (See Diagram Two) i.e. 1 ... K-R3; 2. R R2 mate; or 1 ... K-Rl;BLACKdO NO 90 O X 9X NX dX2.QR QN QB Q K KB KN KRWHITENo problemKxP, K-Nl; 3. R-K8 mate. However, the thirdpossible black move will lead to a solution much more elegant. For if 1 ... P-t N4, white will play 2. K-B7! (see Diagram Three), and black’s . normal attempt to run is thwarted by hisBLACKdO NO 90-0 X 9X NX dXQR QN QB QKB KN KRWHITEA trap closesown pawn at N4 which blocks his escape from 3. R-R2 mate. True Zugzwang irony!In all three above instances, w'hite can “pass” on his first move and still have the requisite mate.Such is not the case after black’s fourth and final legal move 1 ... K-Nl. Here white’s pieces are not in position for the required mate. (After 1 ... K-Nl; 2. KxP, K-Bl; there is no immediate mate.)But a slight alteration in white’s position will prepare the proper mate in that eventuality too.Thus, the first white move and solution to the problem must be 1. R-QB2!! NowBLACKdO NO 90 O X 9X NX dXQR QN QB Q K KB KN KRWHITEMate in two morewhite will mate after 1 ... K-Nl (see Diagram Four), with2. KxP, K-Rl (the rook cutsoff the king’s escape); and3. R-B8 mate.The problem is solved. The solution 1. R-B2 adjusts the position to black’s possible fourth move, while preserving the conditions for the mates already existing in the initial position after black’s other moves.Now give the problem to someone else, and observe how difficult finding the solution can be.Sherman HemsleyStars in SpinoffBy JAY SHARBUTT AP Television WriterNEW YORK (AP) — They must do it with mirrors. Because in the flesh, Sherman Hemsley is short, nervous, tends to mumble and generally resembles a man facing $1,000 in taxes with two bits in assets.On the tube, he appears tall and feisty, has impeccable diction and portrays a confident man of middle-class means named George Jefferson in the new CBS comedy series, “The Jeffersons.”The show, about a black family, is a spinoff from44 A11 in th** Fnmilvi n
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Glens Falls Post Star
Glens Falls, New York, US
Sat, Feb 15, 1975
Page 38
Full Page
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Los A.
CA, USA 03 Jan 2023
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