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A friend of mine showed me a great white-to-mate-in-three puzzle back in the late '50s or early '60s. Unfortunately he doesn't recall it. I can remember a few things: It was composed by someone from West Virginia. White had two knights at opposite corners of a 3x3 block. White's first move was not a check. Can anyone help me find it?

Rewan Demontay
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Richard Hevener
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  • Umm what was the stipulation (the goal)? Was it a mate problem? – Alan Jun 06 '14 at 14:00
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    It will be nearly impossible to find with such limited information. A search of a problem database such as http://www.yacpdb.org gave me hundreds and hundreds of pages of hits for the given material combination and stipulation of #3. I cannot find information about any well-known composers from West Viriginia, and little information at all on problem chess out of West Viriginia. I found a few problems from the West Virginia Chess Bulletin, but they did not match and were not by American composers. First move not a check is true of almost all #3 problems. – GrizzlyRawrz Jun 06 '14 at 16:37
  • @Alan As stated, it was white-to-mate-in-three. – Richard Hevener Jun 06 '14 at 17:32
  • @GrizzlyRawrz Thanks for checking anyway. I suspect the problem came from a prominent source in the late '50s or early '60s, perhaps Chess Review or Chess Life. I'm originally from W.Va., which is why my friend mentioned that about the problem. I remember working on it for days before giving up. – Richard Hevener Jun 06 '14 at 17:41
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    @Richard Hevener Using the additional criteria of Chess Review or Chess Life in the period 1955-1965 I ended up with two problems on yacpdb matching the description where I could not confirm the origin of the composer: http://imgur.com/sp9TMSB. It's a long shot of course, but without any more information I think it's the best I can do. Of course, others may be aware of better sources to search, problem chess is not really my specialty. – GrizzlyRawrz Jun 06 '14 at 18:50
  • @GrizzlyRawrz Thanks again. I wasn't aware of the problem databases. I suspect that neither of your candidates is my mystery problem, though: 1957 is too early and William Fillery was Canadian. You're right about the immense variety of such two knight problems. Too bad there's a dearth of W.Va. composers. – Richard Hevener Jun 07 '14 at 18:30
  • Was the first move a bishop move? – user5649 Apr 19 '15 at 19:15
  • @user5649 Gosh, I just can't remember. Unfortunately, my friend (Dave) has no recollection of this problem. I recall the W.Va. connection because I'm originally from there. I worked on it a long time before giving up and having Dave show me the solution. – Richard Hevener Apr 19 '15 at 23:23
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    Also, "white's first move was not a check" is true of almost every published mate-in-three problem (except for tactics puzzles). – Noam D. Elkies Feb 09 '17 at 02:49

1 Answers1

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This is hit or miss.

No one can really know what puzzle your thinking about, so please don't down vote wrong attempts. People shouldn't be penalized for trying to help. It's only through trial and error we're going to help you find your puzzle.

Is this your puzzle: HERE?

user34445
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  • The question does _explicitly_ state that the puzzle in question was a mate-in-3, so what you've linked to certainly can't be it. – Steven Stadnicki Feb 08 '17 at 20:05
  • @user34445 No, that's not it. It was mate-in-three from a position on a chess board, with White's knights at opposite corners of a 3x3 block and the first move not a check. My friend Dave, who showed me the puzzle, told me that the composer was from W.Va. But Dave now, alas, recalls nothing about the episode. He claims he never subscribed to Chess Review or Chess Life, but I suspect he may be wrong about that. Thanks anyway. – Richard Hevener Feb 08 '17 at 22:42