[Retros] Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of Puzzles

[Noam Elkies]

"Mario Richter" <mri_two at t-online.de> writes:


> Btw. here are some other 9-black-pawn position:


Thanks.  Interesting to compare the various mechanisms.
Pity about the dual in


> Leopold L=F6wy

> Fern vom Alltag 7 1925

> bNNK4/1k6/p1p1Pp2/6Pp/6pR/2pPp1B1/1p3Qp1/R6B



> With 9 white pawns, there is e.g. the followoing joke problem

> (but only the removal of some pawns allows a #1):

> George Leathem

> The Problemist FCS 821 05/1933

> 8/3pPKPp/4N1N1/4PkP1/3P1p1P/3PRPRP/8/5Q2

> #1


Looks like each of White's 9 pawns can be removed: Qd3/h3/xf4,
Nd4/g7 or Nh4/e7, and Re5/Rg5 would all be checkmaate.  What I
don't see is why the Black pawns on d7 and h7 are needed.

I've also seen (but cannot remember the position or source)
another such joke, where each side has an illegal cluster of
three pawns such as White a2,b2,a3, and there's a different
mate in one for each of the 3x3=9 ways of making the position legal
by removing one pawn from each of those two triangles.

NDE