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That was the year that was
December 31, 2002
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In yesterday's column we discussed John Nunn's excellent
book on chess problems, Solving in Style, originally
published in 1985 by George Allen & Unwin and now reprinted
by Gambit. We did not mention that the author is a world-class
Grandmaster, one of the most highly acclaimed chess writers
in the world, and a also one of the world's finest problem
solvers. John has won the British Problem Solving Championship
three times, and took the gold medal for Chess Problem Solving
at the 1999 Mind Sports Olympiad.
Like most great solvers John Nunn also composes problems
himself. And like all true problemists he is a great connoisseur
of helpmates, having composed and published many lovely
examples himself. When I told him I was doing a Christmas
Problem week he immediately went to work and in 24 hours
sent me the four helpmate problems
shown above (we will put them on proper chessboards lower
down on this page). The "2002" was for the last
day of the year that was.
Digging deep in my photo archive I came across some black-and-white
pictures, taken in 1983, of a long-haired John Nunn composing
a helpmate in my living room during a visit in Germany.
You can see the environment in which chess problems are
composed. John has a small chessboard, a FIDE Problem Album
(to his left), a cup of coffee and a computer. Mind you
around that time personal computers had barely been invented.
But this computer expert (did we forget to mention that
John is a first-class programmer too?) is using an Apple
II clone and the very first version of the Finnish problem
solving program Alybadix to check his helpmate composition.
After examining the two pictures above with a magnifying
glass John reconstructed the helpmates he was composing.
They have been archived in these pictures and never been
published before.
John Nunn, Original,
Hollenstedt, 1983
Helpmate in two moves
(a) diagram; (b) wKg5 (two solutions)
For newbies: the above is a twin problem. First you solve
the diagram position, then you move the white king from
c8 to g5. In both cases it is Black to move, with both sides
cooperating to allow White to mate in two moves.
And here for your pleasure and puzzlement on the last day
of the year are the four helpmate puzzles John composed
to depict the digits "2 0 0 2".
Solutions
Frederic Friedel
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