A quartette of mates December 26, 2005
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Remember our introduction to a very special type of chess program, the helpmate? It was invented by the great Samuel Loyd, in 1860 (based on an incomplete idea by Max Lange in 1854). It is a genre designed to present a great wealth of extraordinary mating positions, the kinds you will never encounter in a regular game of chess.

In a helpmate Black always moves first, and both sides cooperate to mate the black king in the prescribed number of moves. Usually it looks like a completely impossible task, and the beauty is in discovering that there is a crazy and implausible way to construct a mate after all.

Helpmates may sometimes have more than one solution – something that would render a direct mate problem worthless. On the other hand helpmates are very strict about the order of moves. In direct mates they may sometimes be a choice of move order, somewhere in the solution. In helpmates this must never be the case. Even the slightest deviation at any point in the sequence of moves would ruin the problem. More information on the finer points of helpmates are to be found in our December 30 2002 Christmas column.

Not all chess fans like helpmates, but those that have started to solve them are usually hooked for life. Helpmates are in many was richer than traditional mate problems. Just give them a chance. For instance with the following remarkable quartette, suitable for beginners and helpmate fans alike.

Jacob Mintz, The Problemist 1982 – I

Helpmate in three (i.e. Black to play helps
White to deliver mate in three moves)

For those of you completely unfamiliar with helpmates the solution to the first of this quartette of problems is given at the bottom of the page. For those who have managed to solve it, here are the other three parts, which become progressively trickier and more difficult to solve.

Jacob Mintz, The Problemist 1982 – II

Helpmate in three

Jacob Mintz, The Problemist 1982 – III

Helpmate in three

Jacob Mintz, The Problemist 1982 – IV

Helpmate in three

Note that in each case it is just the knight that has been moved to a different square. And still this changes the fundamental nature of the solution in a very special way. So special, in fact, the this quartette won the author a first prize when the problem was first published.

And now for the helpmate newbies who cannot make head or tails of any of these problems. The solution to the first part is as follows: 1.a1Q+ Ne1 2.Qb2 Nc2 3.Qb5 Ra3#. Very easy, don't you think? Note that in helpmates you write the black moves of the solutions first. Now go ahead and solve the other three parts, and enjoy the surprises that are waiting for you.

Frederic Friedel