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55-416: The cover of the first issue featured a chess problem composed by Otto Wurzburg (1875–1951), a Grand Rapids, Michigan , postal worker. Kashdan was one of the world's premier problem solvers of the 1920s and 1930s. His interest in compositions influenced the magazine for years after he left, and the cover would feature a chess problem every issue until May 1941. Wurzburg served as problem editor and contributed

110-401: A combination . A piece is said to attack (or threaten) an opponent's piece if, on the next move, it could capture that piece. A piece is said to defend (or protect) a piece of the defender's color if, in case the defended piece were taken by the opponent, the defender could immediately recapture. Attacking a piece usually, but not always (see Sacrifice ), forces the opponent to respond if

165-408: A discovered check . Discovered attacks are powerful since the moved piece may be able to pose a second threat. A special case of a discovered check is a double check , where both the piece being unmasked and the piece being moved (rarely a third piece instead, possible in the case of an en passant capture) attack the enemy king. A double check always forces the opponent to move the king, since it

220-637: A tactic is a sequence of moves that each makes one or more immediate threats – a check , a material threat, a checkmating sequence threat, or the threat of another tactic – that culminates in the opponent's being unable to respond to all of the threats without making some kind of concession. Most often, the immediate benefit takes the form of a material advantage or mating attack ; however, some tactics are used for defensive purposes and can salvage material that would otherwise be lost, or to induce stalemate in an otherwise lost position. Tactics are usually contrasted with strategy , whereby

275-437: A 3rd Honourable Mention, or just three unranked Honourable Mentions). After an award is published, there is a period (typically around three months) in which individuals may claim honoured problems are anticipated (that is, that an identical problem, or nearly so, had been published at an earlier date) or unsound (i.e., that a problem has cooks or no solution). If such claims are upheld, the award may be adjusted accordingly. At

330-450: A GM, a solver must score at least 90 percent of the winner's points and on each occasion finish in at least tenth place three times within ten successive WCSCs. For the IM title they must score at least 80 percent of the winner's points and each time finish in at least fifteenth place twice within five successive WCSCs; alternatively, winning a single WCSC or scoring as many points as the winner in

385-402: A chess problem are unrealistic in the sense that they are very unlikely to occur in over-the-board play. There is a good deal of specialized jargon used in connection with chess problems . The term chess problem is not sharply defined: there is no clear demarcation between chess compositions on the one hand and puzzle or tactical exercises on the other. In practice, however, the distinction

440-548: A chess set is prohibited. The most notable tournament of this type is the World Chess Solving Championship , organised by the PCCC. In both types of tourney, each problem is worth a specified number of points, often with bonus points for finding cooks or correctly claiming no solution. Incomplete solutions are awarded an appropriate proportion of the points available. The solver amassing the most points

495-491: A decisive weakness. A pawn that has advanced all the way to the opposite side of the board is promoted to any other piece except a king. A sacrifice of some material is often necessary to throw the opponent's position out of balance, potentially gaining positional advantage. The sacrificed material is sometimes later offset with a consequent material gain. Pawn sacrifices in the opening are known as gambits ; they are usually not intended for material gain, but rather to achieve

550-527: A monthly column. The magazine staff also included art director Bertram Kadish who contributed cartoons and illustrations. An unusual feature of the first issue was a bridge column written by George Reith. Horowitz and Reinfeld were contract bridge devotees, but the column was dropped after three issues. Horowitz became the editor for the November-December 1933 issue when Kashdan left the magazine to focus more on his playing career. In 1934 it became

605-468: A more active position. Direct attacks against the enemy king are often started by sacrifices. A common example is sacrificing a bishop on h2 or h7, checking the king, who usually must take the bishop. This allows the queen and knight to develop a fulminant attack. Zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move") occurs when a player is forced to make an undesirable move. The player is put at a disadvantage because they would prefer to pass and make no move, but

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660-473: A more powerful piece, such as a rook or a knight, to retreat. The ability to fork two enemy pieces by advancing a pawn is often a threat. Alternately, a pawn move can itself reveal a discovered attack . When pawns are arranged on a diagonal, with each pawn guarded by the pawn behind it, they form a wall or pawn chain protecting any friendly pieces behind them. A weak pawn structure, with unprotected or isolated pawns ahead of more valuable pieces, can be

715-399: A move has to be made, all choices of which weaken their position. Situations involving zugzwang seldom occur before the endgame , where there are fewer choices of available moves. Zwischenzug (German for "intermediate move") is a common tactic in which a player under threat, instead of directly countering or recapturing, introduces an even more devastating threat. The tactic often involves

770-505: A new column by Reuben Fine , "Game of the Month". (His rival Samuel Reshevsky would not write for the magazine until some years later.) This column and format would later be continued by Max Euwe and Svetozar Gligorić . In the same issue, Irving Chernev started the column "Chess Quiz". Chernev had begun to contribute to the magazine in its first year but this marked the beginning of a larger role. Jack Collins and Albert Pinkus joined

825-452: A number to indicate in how many moves the goal must be achieved. "#3", therefore, indicates a mate in three, while "ser-h=14" indicates a series help stalemate in 14 (i.e., Black makes 14 moves in a row such that White can subsequently make one move to deliver stalemate). In studies, the symbols "+" and "=" are used to indicate "White to play and win" and "White to play and draw" respectively. Various tournaments (or tourneys ) exist for both

880-685: A particular year to be eligible for an informal award. Formal tourneys are often held to commemorate a particular event or person. The World Chess Composing Tournament (WCCT) is a formal tourney for national teams organised by the Permanent Commission of the FIDE for Chess Compositions (PCCC). In both formal and informal tourneys, entries will normally be limited to a particular genre of problem (for example, mate in twos, moremovers, helpmates) and may or may not have additional restrictions (for example, problems in patrol chess , problems showing

935-400: A pawn forward, it can attack two pieces—one diagonally to the left, and another diagonally to the right, and because it is worth less than all other pieces, it does not matter if either or both forked pieces are defended. The queen is also an excellent forking piece, since she can move in eight different directions. However, a queen fork is only useful if both pieces are undefended, or if one

990-424: A pin, since they can move more than one square in a straight line. If the pinned piece cannot move because doing so would produce check, the pin is called absolute . If moving the pinned piece would expose a non-king piece, the pin is called relative . A skewer is a move that attacks two pieces in a line, similar to a pin, except that the enemy piece of greater value is in front of the piece of lesser value. After

1045-684: A problem will involve a humorous trick or twist. The problem at right, shown in Norwegian broadcaster NRK 's airings from the World Championships in Dubai 2021, calls for White to move and give immediate checkmate in just a single move. The trick is to recognize that despite the arrangement of the Black men, the board is actually viewed from the White side (as shown by the Black king standing on

1100-465: A single WCSC will earn the IM title. For the FM title, the solver must score at least 75 percent of the winners points and each time finish within the top 40 percent of participants in any two PCCC-approved solving competitions. The title International Judge of Chess Compositions is given to individuals considered capable of judging composing tourneys at the highest level. Chess tactics In chess ,

1155-461: A square of its own color, rather than on the opposite color as in the standard opening position). Thus the solution is 1 Nd3#; the Black pawns are moving down the board and cannot capture the White knight. For reasons of space and internationality, various abbreviations are often used in chess problem journals to indicate a problem's stipulation (whether it is a mate in two, helpmate in four, or whatever). The most common are: These are combined with

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1210-671: A strategic advantage are also classified as tactics. Tactics usually follow one of a number of repeating patterns; these include forks , skewers , batteries , discovered attacks , undermining , overloading , deflection , pins , and interference . The Encyclopedia of Chess Middlegames gives the following tactics categories: Annihilation of Defense, Blockade , Decoying , Deflection , Demolition of Pawns, Discovered Attack , Double Attack , Interception, Intermediate Move , Overloading , Passed Pawn , Pawns Breakthrough, Pin , Pursuit (perpetual attack), Space Clearance, and X-ray Attack . Often tactics of more than one type are conjoined in

1265-422: Is a knight played to c2 or c7, threatening both the enemy rook and king. Such forks checking a king are particularly effective, because the opponent is forced by the rules of chess to immediately remove the check to their king. The opponent cannot choose to defend the other piece, or use a zwischenzug (other than a cross check ) to complicate the situation. Pawns can also be effective in forking. By moving

1320-463: Is as follows: The thematic approach to solving is to notice then that in the original position, Black is already almost in zugzwang. If Black were compelled to play first, only Re3 and Bg5 would not allow immediate mate. However, each of those two moves blocks a flight square for the black king, and once White has removed his rook from h2 White can put some other piece on that square to deliver mate: 1...Re3 2.Bh2# and 1...Bg5 2.Qh2#. The arrangement of

1375-492: Is impossible to defend against attacks from two directions in any other way. A fork is a move that uses one piece to attack two or more of the opponent's pieces simultaneously, with the aim to achieve material advantage, since the opponent can counter only one of the threats. Knights are often used for forks, with their unique moving and jumping ability, which makes them able to attack any enemy piece except for an enemy knight without being attacked in return. A common situation

1430-417: Is the winner. Just as in over-the-board play, the titles Grandmaster , International Master and FIDE Master are awarded by FIDE via the Permanent Commission of the FIDE for Chess Compositions (PCCC) for especially distinguished problem and study composers and solvers (unlike over-the-board chess, however, there have not been any women-only equivalents to these titles in problem chess). For composition,

1485-401: Is to be expected when it comes to aesthetic appraisal. Nevertheless, modern taste generally recognises the following elements to be important in the aesthetic evaluation of a problem: To the right is a directmate problem composed by Thomas Taverner in 1881. The key move is 1.Rh1. This is difficult to find because it makes no threat – instead, it puts Black in zugzwang , a situation in which

1540-432: Is undefended and the other is the enemy's king. The queen is the most valuable attacking piece, so it is usually not profitable for her to capture a defended piece. Fork attacks can be either relative (meaning the attacked pieces comprise pawn[s], knight[s], bishop[s], rook[s], or queen[s]), or absolute (one of the attacked pieces is the enemy king, in check). The targets of a fork do not have to be pieces. One or more of

1595-408: Is very clear. There are common characteristics shared by compositions in the problem section of chess magazines, in specialist chess problem magazines, and in collections of chess problems in book form. Not every chess problem has every one of these features, but most have several: Problems can be contrasted with tactical puzzles often found in chess columns or magazines in which the task is to find

1650-497: Is very significant, and indeed most composers and solvers consider such compositions to be an art form. Vladimir Nabokov wrote about the "originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity, and splendid insincerity" of creating chess problems and spent considerable time doing so. There are no official standards by which to distinguish a beautiful problem from a poor one and such judgments can vary from individual to individual as well as from generation to generation. Such variation

1705-451: The Lacny theme, problems using fewer than nine units). Honours are usually awarded in three grades: these are, in descending order of merit, prizes, honourable mentions, and commendations. As many problems as the judge sees fit may be placed in each grade, and the problems within each grade may or may not be ranked (so an award may include a 1st Honourable Mention, a 2nd Honourable Mention, and

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1760-497: The FM title (first awarded 1990) has been determined on the basis of the number of problems or studies a composer had selected for publication in the FIDE Albums . These albums are collections of the best problems and studies composed in a particular three-year period, as selected by FIDE-appointed judges from submitted entries. Each problem published in an album is worth 1 point; each study is worth 1⅔; joint compositions are worth

1815-521: The International Master title was established in 1959, with André Chéron , Arnoldo Ellerman , Alexander Gerbstmann , Jan Hartong , Cyril Kipping and Marian Wróbel being the first honorary recipients. In subsequent years, qualification for the IM title, as well as for the GM title (first awarded in 1972 to Genrikh Kasparyan , Lev Loshinsky , Comins Mansfield , and Eeltje Visserman ) and

1870-492: The Month" column in November 1949. Euwe resurrected the column in 1952. Savielly Tartakower also joined the magazine that year, providing portions of his memoirs at intermittent intervals. Contributors later included Walter Korn (1953), Arthur Bisguier (1957), and Petar Trifunovic (1963). From its beginning in 1933, Chess Review had been the leading U.S. chess periodical. In 1961 Frank Brady redesigned Chess Life ,

1925-408: The above categories. Some of these are really coded mathematical problems , expressed using the geometry and pieces of the chessboard. A famous such problem is the knight's tour , in which one is to determine the path of a knight that visits each square of the board exactly once. Another is the eight queens problem, in which eight queens are to be placed on the board so that none is attacking any of

1980-446: The above types of problem, castling is assumed to be allowed unless it can be proved by retrograde analysis (see below) that the rook in question or king must have previously moved. En passant captures, on the other hand, are assumed not to be legal, unless it can be proved that the pawn to be captured must have moved two squares on the previous move. There are several other types of chess problem which do not fall into any of

2035-417: The attacked piece is undefended, or if the attacking piece is of lower value than the one attacked. When the piece attacked is a king , then a player has at most three options: When the attacked piece is not a king, a player may have additional options, beyond the ones listed above: When a player is able to capture the opponent's piece(s) without losing any of their own (or losing a piece of lesser value),

2090-436: The best move or sequence of moves (usually leading to mate or gain of material) from a given position. Such puzzles are often taken from actual games, or at least have positions which look as if they could have arisen during a game, and are used for instructional purposes. Most such puzzles fail to exhibit the above features. Solution: 1.Rcc7 ! (threatening 2.Nc3) There are various different types of chess problems: In all

2145-400: The black rooks and bishops, with a pair of adjacent rooks flanked by a pair of bishops, is known to problemists as Organ Pipes . This arrangement is designed to illustrate the effect of mutual Black interferences: for example, consider what happens after the key if Black plays 1...Bf7. White now mates with 2.Qf5#, a move which is only possible because the bishop Black moved has got in the way of

2200-420: The composition and solving of chess problems. Composition tourneys may be formal or informal . In formal tourneys, the competing problems are not published before they are judged, while in informal tourneys they are. Informal tourneys are often run by problem magazines and other publications with a regular problem section; it is common for every problem to have been published in a particular magazine within

2255-453: The end of this period, the award becomes final. It is normal to indicate any honour a problem has received when it is republished. Solving tournaments also fall into two main types. In tourneys conducted by correspondence, the participants send their entries by post or e-mail. These are often run on similar terms to informal composition tourneys; indeed, the same problems which are entries in the informal composition tourney are often also set in

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2310-676: The first chess periodical to be sold on newsstands and leading department stores. For that reason, no June issue was printed and the magazine dated ahead one month. In December 1935 the magazine began to put "The Official Organ of the American Chess Federation" on the cover. The American Chess Federation was a predecessor of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), established in 1939. Reinfeld would temporarily leave in 1936 to concentrate on his book writing. The August-September 1941 issue featured

2365-533: The individual moves by themselves do not make indefensible threats, and the cumulative advantage of them takes longer to capitalise. The dichotomy can be summarised as tactics concerning short-term play and strategy concerning long-term play. Examples of strategic advantages are weaknesses in, compromised pawn structure in, and sustained pressure on, the opponent's position. Often, to dichotomize strategy and tactics, sequences of moves that make strategic instead of tactical threats or use tactical threats to obtain

2420-424: The more valuable piece moves away, the lesser piece can be captured. Like pins, only queens, rooks, and bishops can perform the skewer, and skewer attacks can be either absolute (the more valuable piece in front is the king, in check) or relative (the piece in front is a non-king piece). The pawn is the least valuable chess piece, so pawns are often used to capture defended pieces. A single pawn typically forces

2475-479: The official USCF publication, changing it from a newspaper format to a glossy magazine. The magazines would compete until November 1969 when Horowitz retired and the USCF purchased Chess Review to merge the magazines to form Chess Life & Review . Chess problem A chess problem , also called a chess composition , is a puzzle set by the composer using chess pieces on a chess board , which presents

2530-406: The opponent and resulting in material gain and a corresponding, perhaps decisive, advantage. Material gain can be achieved by several different types of tactics. A discovered attack is a move that allows an attack by another piece. A piece is moved away so as to allow the attack of a friendly bishop, rook or queen on an enemy piece. If the attacked piece is the king, the situation is referred to as

2585-422: The others. Of far greater relation to standard chess problems, however, are the following, which have a rich history and have been revisited many times, with magazines, books and prizes dedicated to them: Across most of the above genres, there is great interest in exploring fairy chess , in which non-standard boards, pieces or rules apply. The role of aesthetic evaluation in the appreciation of chess problems

2640-413: The player is said to have "won material "; i.e., the opponent will have fewer (or less valuable) pieces remaining on the board. The goal of each basic tactic is to win material. At the professional level, often the mere threat of material loss (i.e., an anticipated tactic) induces the opponent to pursue an alternative line. In amateur games, however, tactics often come to full fruition – unforeseen by

2695-492: The player must move, yet every move leads to a disadvantage. Each of Black's nineteen legal replies allows an immediate mate. For example, if Black defends with 1...Bxh7, the d5-square is no longer guarded, and White mates with 2.Nd5#. Or if Black plays 1...Re5, Black blocks that escape square for his king allowing 2.Qg4#. If Black plays 1...Rf6, then 2.Rh4#. Yet if Black could only pass (i.e., make no move at all), White would have no way to mate on his second move. The full solution

2750-501: The rook's guard of f5 – this is known as a self-interference . Similarly, if Black tries 1...Rf7, this interferes with the bishop's guard of d5, allowing White to mate with Nd5#. Mutual interferences like this, between two pieces on one square, are known as Grimshaw interferences, and are the theme of this problem. The problem exhibits four such interferences, on squares e6, e7, f6, and f7. Although most problems call for straightforward (though possibly difficult) solution, occasionally

2805-570: The same divided by the number of composers. For the FIDE Master title, a composer must accumulate 12 points; for the International Master title, 25 points are needed; and for the Grandmaster title, a composer must have 70 points. For solvers, the GM and IM titles were both first awarded in 1982; the FM title followed in 1997. GM and IM titles can only be gained by participating in the official World Chess Solving Championship (WCSC): to become

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2860-431: The solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is to move first, and checkmate Black in two moves against any possible defence. A chess problem fundamentally differs from over-the-board play in that the latter involves a struggle between Black and White, whereas the former involves a competition between the composer and the solver. Most positions which occur in

2915-412: The solving tourney. It is impossible to eliminate the use of computers in such tournaments, though some problems, such as those with particularly long solutions, will not be well-suited to solution by computer. Other solving tourneys are held with all participants present at a particular time and place. They have only a limited amount of time to solve the problems, and the use of any solving aid other than

2970-411: The staff in 1943. In 1944 Chess Review began billing itself "The Picture Chess Magazine." Reinfeld returned to the magazine in 1945 as Executive Editor, and Horowitz and Kenneth Harkness were listed as Editors and Publishers. Hans Kmoch joined in 1948, contributing coverage of international tournaments, chess opening theory, and eulogies of great chess players. Fine retired from chess and his "Game of

3025-460: The targets can be a mate threat (for example, forking a loose knight and setting up a battery of queen and bishop that creates a mate threat as well) or implied threat (for example, a knight move that forks a loose bishop and also threatens to fork enemy queen and rook). A pin is a move that inhibits an opponent piece from moving, because doing so would expose a more valuable (or vulnerable) piece behind it. Only bishops, rooks, and queens can perform

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