Page:EB1911 - Volume 06.djvu/112

 Problems.—A chess problem has been described as “merely a position supposed to have occurred in a game of chess, being none other than the critical point where your antagonist announces checkmate in a given number of moves, no matter what defence you play,” but the above description conveys no idea of the degree to which problem-composing has become a specialized study. Owing its inception, doubtless, to the practice of recording critical phases from actual play, the art of problem composition has so grown in favour as to earn the title of the “poetry” of the game.

White wins as follows:—

1. P – R8=Q, R – R7 ch; 2. K – Kt5, R × Q; 3. Kt – Q7 ch, K – Kt2; 4. P – B6 ch, K – R2; 5. QP × Kt, R – R sq; 6. Kt – B8 ch, R × Kt; 7. P × R=Kt mate.

A good chess problem exemplifies chess strategy idealized and concentrated. In examples of actual play there will necessarily remain on the board pieces immaterial to the issue (checkmate), whereas in problems the composer employs only indispensable force so as to focus attention on the idea, avoiding all material which would tend to “obscure the issue.” Hence the first object in a problem is to extract the maximum of finesse with a sparing use of the pieces, but “economy of force” must be combined with “purity of the mate.” A very common mistake, until comparatively recent years, was that of appraising the “economy” of a position according to the slenderness of the force used, but economy is not a question of absolute values. The true criterion is the ratio of the force employed to the skill demanded. The earliest composers strove to give their productions every appearance of real play, and indeed their compositions