The Philanthropist December 29, 2007
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Remember this problem, which we showed you some years ago?

Dr. Karl Fabel, Rätselstunde, June 1952

White to play and not deliver mate!

To solve the above problem you need to be the ultimate philanthropist and really, really want to help your fellow human beings. There is only one move that does not mate the black king. If you cannot find the solution you can go to our Christmas Day puzzle page of 2002. No link is given – the least you can do is to find the page yourself. If you do you can try your hand at a number of other easy problems.

Here's a similarly altruistic problem by that genius of the unorthodox:

Dr. Karl Fabel (Source unknown)

White to play and not win!

You can imagine the situation. It is White to move, and Black has resigned. But White, seeking to encourage him, says: "Wait, the position is not necessarily lost!" "Of course it is, by force," replies Black, and a heated argument follows. After a bet is made White plays in such a way that it does not end in a victory for him. How did he do it?

For those of you for whom the above problems are too easy, here's a tougher one involving a different kind of philanthropy. It is by the same author as the previous two, and was composed in collaboration with another great proponent of the unorthodox in chess.

Hans Kluver, Karl Fabel, 1947

Losing Chess: White to play and "win"

If you do not know what "Losing Chess" is, you will find a gentle introduction by John Nunn in last year's Christmas Puzzles. In Losing Chess capturing is compulsory – whenever a player can capture, he has to do so (if he has different choices to capture, he may choose any one of them). There is no check or checkmate, and the king plays no special role in the game. It can be captured like any other piece.

In the above example Black will always play his queen to a square where White cannot sacrifice his king on the next move. There is only one way White can avoid the inevitable draw.

One of the reasons we are presenting you with unorthodox problems here is that chess engines have become so powerful that it takes them seconds or minutes to solve even the most difficult chess studies. The temptation is too great to switch on your computer and "solve" the ChessBase Christmas puzzles. The ones we have picked cannot be demystified in that way.

However: at least one chess program we know and love has learnt to play Losing Chess. If you want to know the exact rules of the game, simply press F1 in the said program and search for "Giveaway Chess", which is another name for this game. Naturally you can also enter the above position and have it solved in a microsecond or two. So now you know it – so much for Losing Chess in our Christmas Puzzle section.