Mat Plus


WHY  I  LIKE  OLD  PROBLEMS

by John Beasley, England

(From Mat Plus No.13-14, Spring/Summer 1997, p.8) 


The chess problem, like other arts, has undergone several periods of development. In the very early stages, nobody really knows what to do, and work is produced that subsequently appears primitive and ill-formed. Then come the first composers who truly master the medium, and there follows a period in which good work starts to appear in profusion: from these composers themselves, from those who learn from them, and perhaps from others who independently discover the techniques for themselves. But the field is limited, so this golden age eventually dries up, and subsequent workers follow a number of paths. Some continue to produce work in the established style, aiming for greater polish or complexity; some explore an aspect of the field which has not yet been exploited; some devote themselves to the academic examination of technical minutiae; some move into new but related fields (in our own case, fairy chess); some remain ostensibly in the same field, but court controversy by rejecting a constraint whose observ ance has hitherto been regarded as essential. We have seen all these developments in the history of the chess problem. My concern here, however, is with the start of the golden age: that period of creativity which follows the first mastering of the medium.

For there is a very real and engaging paradox: what we see as "old" problems are in truth better regarded as "new" ones. They have a freshness that we now see only in works in a new fairy chess field; they break new ground, or they exploit ground only very recently broken by others, and sometimes they exploit it in a very striking fashion. This article will present a dozen problems from the period immediately following the establishment of the problem as an art separate from the parent game. The selection i s deliberately restricted; all the problems are British, all but two are from the same collection, only one is later than 1876, and no two are by the same composer. My objective is to demonstrate the wide availability of good table wine, not to search for classic vintage, and I would expect a search among the publications of other countries to yield work of comparable quality. I am indebted to the library of the British Chess Problem Society for source material, and to Jeremy Gaige's Biobibliography of B ritish chess personalia for biographical information.

1. J. B. of Bridport
In Chess Strategy 1865







#25+4
The two-mover 1 is by "J. B. of Bridport" (John Brown, 1827-63). I do not know where it first appeared, but it was reprinted in the book Chess strategy (1865) which was produced by his admirers in an attempt to raise funds for his widow. The flight-creating moves 1... Bf4: and 1... f6 need attention, so the key 1.Qe7 is not too difficult to find, but what a beautiful piece of construction it is: the key gives two flights and makes no threat, and we have six different mates (seven if the mates 1... Kg6 2.Qf7: and 1... Bg4,..., Bd1 2.Qf7: are counted as distinct) with varied motivations and a complete absence of duals. This is the early English two-mover at its best.
2. J. W. Abbott
In English Chess Problems 1876







#37+3
The next ten examples come from the book English chess problems by J. Pierce and W. T. Pierce (1876). Sources are not quoted, so I cannot put them into chronological order, but alphabetical order will give a pleasant mixture of themes. Most are three-movers, and 2 is by J. W. Abbott (1840-1923). The key is 1.Rh4, and after 1... f5 comes the sacrificial switchback 2.Rf4 with two mates (2... Kf4: 3.Bd6, 2... Kf6 3.Sg4). The sacrifice of a White rook on a di agonal flight square is well known, but rarely has it been prepared quite so neatly. If 1... Kf5 then 2.Rh5+.
3. Silas Angas
In English Chess Problems 1876







#55+1
3 is a five-mover by Silas Angas (1814-67). It is essentially a single-line problem, though Black's moves are not absolutely forced: 1.Bc6 (we shall let the Black king wander to e6, so we need to put a guard on d7) Ke5 2.Sd5 Ke6/Ke4 3.Sb4 Ke5 (if 2... Ke4 and 3... Kf4 then 4.Sd3 is mate at once) 4.Bd5 (an unexpected switchback) Kf4 5.Sd3. Strategically, the task is to get the White knight to b4 without giving stalemate on the way, a simple enough requirement, but I won der how quickly people would find the answer in a modern solving competition.
4. C. W. Benbow
In English Chess Problems 1876







#44+3
4 is a four-mover by C. W. Benbow (1842-1908). The key 1.Bg1 effectively restricts Black to 1... d5, since 1... e4 will allow 2.Bd4 and mate next move. But if White looks far enough ahead, he will see that he can play 2.Bd4! anyway; any move other than 2... ed4: allows immediate mate, and after 2... ed4: we have the quiet continuation 3.Sd3 Kd6 4.Rf6. It's nothing special but it is pleasant, and I personally like the way in which the main line is highlighted by the provision of a short mate for everything else.
5. F. H. Bennett
In English Chess Problems 1876







#36+3
The three-mover 5 is a charming trifle by F. H. Bennett, a composer of whom I know nothing. The key is 1.Bf5 waiting, and after 1... Kf5: we have the delightful continuation 2.Bg5 Kg5: 3.Qe5. Black's other moves can be mopped up easily enough, though all the play is quiet: 1... Kd5,Kd6 2.Qc3 and 3.Qc5, 1... Kf6 2.Bf4 and 3.Qe5.
6. J. G. Campbell
In English Chess Problems 1876







#38+10
6 is by J. G. Campbell (1830-91), who did many good things. Most Black moves allow immediate mate; the only exceptions are 1... Be5, met by 2.Rd1+ with mate next move, and 1... Se4, which blocks the diagonal g2-d5 (other moves by this knight allow mate by 2.Qg2) and needs attention. How to cope with it? 1.Rc1! Se4 2.Qb3!! This threatens 3.Qb7, and if 2... cb3: then 3.c4. Burying a rook behind an unmoved pawn has been done elsewhere (there were classic nineteenth-century setti ngs by Klett and Berger, and a 1959 problem by Giegold buries its rook behind a column of no fewer than four pawns) but it always makes a spectacular key.
7. D. Fawcett
In English Chess Problems 1876







#37+1
7 shows some gentle king-piloting by D. Fawcett (1854-?1952). Black's moves to the c-file need attention, and the natural way to provide for them is to set up a mate by Qb4. Unfortunately the direct approach 1.Qe7 fails (1... Kc4: does indeed allow immediate mate, but after 1... Kc3 2.Qb4+ the Black king can hide back on d4) and White must be more subtle: 1.Qd8. Now 1... Kc5, Kc4:, Kc3 can all be met by 2.Qb6, because the White queen prevents 2... Kd4 and mate by 3.Qb4 will follow, while the new move 1... Ke4: is met by the switchback line 2.Ke6 Kf4 3.Qh4.
8. Frank Healey
In English Chess Problems 1876







#36+5
8 is by Frank Healey (1828-1906), the composer of the famous Bristol problem. This one has a similar theme. Most Black moves allow immediate mate by Qd3 or Qe3, and only 1... Bd2 and 1... Bc1 need attention. Even so, the key 1.Sa7! is not obvious. Its sole purpose is to clear the diagonal a8-e4 so that 1... Bd2,Bc1 can be met by 2.Qf8 (threat 3.Qf5) Bf4 3.Qa8. The plug pawn on a5 is a pity, but it looks as if it might be there to prevent northward moves by the queen an d to me at least it did not signpost the key.
9. R. Ormond
In English Chess Problems 1876







#37+4
9 is by R. Ormond, another composer who is just a name to me. 1... Kd5: can be met by immediate mate, but 1... Ke5 needs attention. The key 1.Se7 covers f5 and provides a short mate for it, there is a threat of immediate mate by 2.Qc5, and yet another short mate follows 1... Kc7, but what about the natural move 1... Ke7:? The answer is the second sacrifice 2.Qf8+, leading to the attractive model mate 2... Kf8: 3.Bc5.
10. W. T. Pierce
In English Chess Problems 1876







#36+3
10 is by W. T. Pierce (1839-1922), one of the editors of English chess problems. It shows the Indian theme with a knight promotion embellishment, 1.Ba8 Kd7 2.b7 Kc6 3.b8S. It is not difficult, but it is neat and enjoyable.
11. G. J. Slater
In English Chess Problems 1876







#38+1
11, a four-mover by G. J. Slater (1853-1907), is of heavier metal. The key is 1.Re8; if Black plays 1... Kd5, we have 2.Be5 Ke4 3.Be2 with the echo lines 3... Kd5 4.Bf3 and 3... Kf5 4.Bd3; if Black tries 1... Kc7 instead, we have a third near-echo line in 2.Be5+ Kb7 3.Bb8! Ka8 4.Bc6. It was to be a few years before the then-new Bohemian style had a significant influence on British composition and I suspect that this was inspired by earlier native w ork (J. B. of Bridport composed some lightweight three-movers exploiting the mate here echoed), but its three model mates place it firmly in what was to become the Bohemian tradition.
12. D. Y. Mills
1881







#66+3
My final example is an 1881 six-mover by D. Y. Mills, whom I take to be the former Scottish champion of that name (1849-1904) though his obituary in the British Chess Magazine makes no mention of any composing activity. It shows a roundabout Indian manoeuvre, spiced by a neat trick to lose a tempo: 1.Bd1! Kf5 2.Be2 Kf6 3.Ba6 Kf5 4.Bc8 Kf6 5.Kd7 Kf5 6.Ke7. I owe this problem to Leonard Barden's chess column in the British newspaper The Guardian. Leonard has frequently quoted material from my columns in his; it is pleasant to be able to repay the compliment.
It is the curse of the chess problem to be clever without being entertaining, and the modern obsession with tourney awards, album points, and titles has intensified this tendency. It was by no means absent in the past, as some turgid heavyweights which I have not quoted would show, but tourneys were far less prominent, the accretion of jargon that now bedevils us had not occurred, and problems tended to be judged more on the attractiveness of their key and play than on whether they were realizations of some named theme or other. Add to this the fact that many striking ideas were investigated at a very early stage, and it will be realized that a browse through old books and magazines is always likely to be a rewarding experience. Yes, one encounters a lot that is primitive, and one soon learns that composer X should be passed over quickly while anything by Y is likely to merit a closer look; but the chess problem as entertainment gave at least as much pleasure in the early years of its development as it does n ow.


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