Happy New Year! January 1st, 2003
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Solutions

The solution to this problem will be published this weekend (January 4-5)

Niels Hoëg, Skakbladet, 1916

What was the last move?

Solution: In the above position the black king is in check, so it must be Black's move. So the last move must have been by White. But this could not have been by the white king, which could not have given a "discovered check" (which would have been possible if it was on d5, by the discovered check Kd4-d5 check). Neither could the bishop have made the last move, because it would have been giving check before moving to a1.

The white pawn on e6 cannot have come from e5, since it would have been checking the black king from there. So it must have come from d5 and captured, en passant, a black pawn that had just moved from e7-e5. Before that White must have played Pd4-d5+, as there is no other move to produce the position.

This must have been the position on the board two moves earlier:

The game continued 1.d5+ e5 2.dxe6+ to arrive at the position given in the original puzzle.

Frederic Friedel