During a heavy gale a chimney-pot was hurled through the air, and
crashed upon the pavement just in front of a pedestrian. He quite calmly
said, "I have no use for it: I do not smoke." Some readers, when they
happen to see a puzzle represented on a chessboard with chess pieces,
are apt to make the equally inconsequent remark, "I have no use for it:
I do not play chess." This is largely a result of the common, but
erroneous, notion that the ordinary chess puzzle with which we are
familiar in the press (dignified, for some reason, with the name
"problem") has a vital connection with the game of chess itself. But
there is no condition in the game that you shall checkmate your opponent
in two moves, in three moves, or in four moves, while the majority of
the positions given in these puzzles are such that one player would have
so great a superiority in pieces that the other would have resigned
before the situations were reached. And the solving of them helps you
but little, and that quite indirectly, in playing the game, it being
well known that, as a rule, the best "chess problemists" are indifferent
players, and _vice versa_. Occasionally a man will be found strong on
both subjects, but he is the exception to the rule.
Yet the simple chequered board and the characteristic moves of the
pieces lend themselves in a very remarkable manner to the devising of
the most entertaining puzzles. There is room for such infinite variety
that the true puzzle lover cannot afford to neglect them. It was with a
view to securing the interest of readers who are frightened off by the
mere presentation of a chessboard that so many puzzles of this class
were originally published by me in various fanciful dresses. Some of
these posers I still retain in their disguised form; others I have
translated into terms of the chessboard. In the majority of cases the
reader will not need any knowledge whatever of chess, but I have thought
it best to assume throughout that he is acquainted with the terminology,
the moves, and the notation of the game.
I first deal with a few questions affecting the chessboard itself; then
with certain statical puzzles relating to the Rook, the Bishop, the
Queen, and the Knight in turn; then dynamical puzzles with the pieces in
the same order; and, finally, with some miscellaneous puzzles on the
chessboard. It is hoped that the formulæ and tables given at the end of
the statical puzzles will be of interest, as they are, for the most
part, published for the first time.