Futility Closet

King, Queen, Knave

Posted in Literature, Puzzles by Greg Ross on March 23rd, 2008

nabokov chess problem

Vladimir Nabokov composed chess problems. Here's a clever one from 1932: "White retracts its last move and mates in one."

This is an instance of retrograde analysis: Of the many legal moves that White might just have made, only one can be revised to yield an immediate mate. Can you find it?

I'll save the answer for next Sunday.