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White to Play and Mate in Two

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

It seems so simple. White moves. Black moves. White mates. Black usually gets many choices, but they all lead to mate. People get hooked on two-movers, and these puzzles are the most popular of chess problems.

We have one today that was composed by a 16 year old boy, George Derrickson of Philadelphia back around 1861. Tragically, he died at 17. According to the estimable chess historian Edward Winter in his book, Kings, Commoners and Knaves, we have only one game score of his play, but he was considered to be a real future star in the chess firmament. Winter offers this problem composed by Derrickson. Have fun with it!


Solution:

1.Qf2 Rxf2 [1...Bxf2 2.Nf4#; 1...Qxf2 2.Ng5# It's clever that each capture of the queen takes away the guarding of a square that allows White to mate.; 1...Rxa1 2.Qxf5#; 1...gxh3 2.Nc5#; 1...Bxb7 2.Nf4#; 1...Qxh3 2.exf5#; 1...fxe4 2.Nc5#; 1...Nxc4 2.Nf4#; 1...Bxc4 2.Nf4#; 1...Nd5+ 2.cxd5#; 1...Qd8+ 2.Nxd8#] 2.Nc5# What a shame to have lost such a talent!

 

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.


 

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