Before we get to the first problem, Fischer gave an example, to illustrate how a helpmate works.
"On the board below, White mates Black in two moves - Black moves first, then White, then Black, and then White checkmates Black. But the twist here is that Black and White work together to mate Black!"
h#2
"Now, let's work out the answer, so you'll get the idea completely. BQf5+! WKd4! BQh7!! WQe8 mate! Get it? One thing more to remember - all of the moves have to be legal, as in regular chess."
Nikolai Ivanovski h#2 White checkmates Black in 2 moves, Black moves first
Albert Renn #3
5 points for sending me a complete variation to both problems, at garykevinware@yahoo.com . After doing Gary's Gems for three years now, I am going to take my first week off, next week. That means that you have two weeks, until January 4, 2012, to send in the answers to this week's problems. See you next year! Also, I am partly dependent on readers for problem/story ideas. There are obviously thousands of problems, however, as you have hopefully noticed, I try to use problems that have some kind of story attached to them. I am running short of ideas, and so if you want to help keep Gary's Gems going, you can send in your suggestions to me at garykevinware@yahoo.com .
