Black and White

gleaner retractor

A curious chess problem from the Jamaica Gleaner. White has just moved. If he retracts this move, he can play another that forces Black to checkmate White immediately. What move does he retract?

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He must just have captured a black queen on h8 with a pawn on g7, promoting that pawn to a white queen. If he now retracts that move, he can play Rh1+, which forces Black to capture the rook with the restored queen, giving mate. From Arthur Ford Mackenzie, Chess: Its Poetry and Its Prose, 1887.

December 29, 2020December 28, 2020 | Puzzles