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N. Höeg
Add ten white Rooks, in such a way that
Black can mate in 1.
Retrograde-analysis will prove that these
Rooks can only stand on a1, a2, a7, b4,
c1, c2, c5, c7, d7 and f7, allowing Black
to mate with Qxb4.
In the last few years this old idea, where
all the pawns of one or even both sides
promote to one kind of piece, had been
taken up again by the Dane Henrik Juel
and the Dutchman Guus Rol - first with Bishops, then with Knights. And
when Goldsteen saw Rol's latest version of an earlier composition by Juel,
something unusual happened to him: he was jealous. He was just pissed off
that he hadn't thought of Juel's and Rol's ten-knight problem (add ten black
Knights to a given position so that White can mate in 1) and so he
formulated the audacious idea that he told me in the street: stalemate ten
black Knights! And let Black win if White doesn't.
We return to the initial position of Goldsteen's problem. (See Diagram)
First the stalemate. Clearly, as many
Knights as possible must be pinned:
eight, along all the diagonal and
orthogonal lines the black King stands
on. This means there must be eight
pinning pieces; at least three promoted
ones. That leaves two other Knights to be
bridled. One of them will be captured
with the stalemating move, but the tenth
Knight can only be stalemated by being
jammed. That can only happen on a
corner square (the geometry of the
chessboard forbids other squares; they
would necessitate jamming Knights on squares where they could not all be
pinned) and this in turn means that both squares a Knight's jump away from
the corner square, must also be occupied by Knights. Therefore, a8 and a1
are impossible. Square h8 also being impossible is the result of incredibly
complex considerations (Goldsteen spent a month and a half on this
problem; 'Not much, for me') that would be beyond the scope of even this
article. But in the bottom right corner square, it can be done. And proudly,
and with many thanks to Harry Goldsteen, I hereby announce the
international premiere of his 'Horse Concoction.' (See Diagram)
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