“Don’t Even Try”: Solution
Solution to Don’t Even Try:
White: To mate, 1. Rb3#. To self-mate, 1. bxc8, promoting to a black king, pinning the pieces on b8 and c7 and leaving Black with only 1. … Kxc3#.
Black: To mate, 1. … Kxc3#. To self-mate, 1. … Nxd5+, forcing 2. Nxd5#.
“Notwithstanding the memo, many young solvers (and old ones too) have had a hard wrestle with this production, but all to no purpose, it was the first of its kind published. The consequence was that many communications were received by the composer doubting his sanity, denouncing the problem as a fraud and threatening that if they caught him on the other side of the channel they would give him a taste of their wrath. The receiver of these communications thought that the channel was a mighty fine affair!”
From Thomas B. Rowland, Chess Fruits, 1884.
