Chess
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Many players are put off chess problems by the dry vocabulary of problemists. When every possible interaction between pieces has a name, the result can make a minor art sound like a dull textbook on Euclidean geometry.
The "Seeburger theme", for example, happens when a "try" - a tempting but incorrect first move - fails because of the freedom of a black piece at a critical moment. A preliminary plan is therefore put into action, designed to ensure the immobility of that piece when the crisis arrives.
Boring, isn't it? Now watch it in action in Seeberger's composition of 1866. In the diagram, it's White to play and mate in four. 1.Ba3 (the "try") threatens Bxc5 and Bd6 mate, but after 1...Nb7! White has no good move; 2.Be7 is met by any move of the black bishop.
But if that bishop couldn't move, Black would have to play 2...h5, allowing 3.Bg5 mate. Now when you start thinking about what White's rook is doing on the board, you should find the answer: 1.Ra8! Bxa8 (to prevent 2.Rf8+) 2.Ba3 Nb7 (otherwise the bishop gets to d6) 3.Be7! and mate with 4.Bd6 (if the knight moves) or 4.Bg5 (after 3...h5).
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments