Houston, We Have A Mate In Two Problem

[garykevinware]

This week's title was also the second prize winner for Best Team Name, for my team at the 2009 USAT West. The problem, and next week's text, giving the solution, are again from the book, The Joys of Chess:Heroes, Battles & Brilliancies by Christian Hesse.



Arthur J. Mosely Northern Whig 1912 #2

2 points for sending me a complete variation to the problem, at garykevinware@yahoo.com , by next Wednesday.

[garykevinware]

Here is the answer to last week's problem:
Mosely #2-
"The e4 square is the most closely supervised terrain on the whole board. All 8 black pieces have it under surveillance, and apparently make it a taboo square for White. Yet the solution to this classic problem of venerable age will be precisely that - occupying this much defended square."
"It is not easy to see how to get at the black king with only two flicks of the wrist. The key move brings about an extremely heightened state of tension in the relationships between the pieces: 1 Ne4!! Unexpected and decisive, a knight with the white scarf of a kamikaze pilot. Because the knight controls the d6 square, White threatens to give mate with Re8. The most important defenses for Black are thus based on taking the said knight:"
1...dxe4 2 Bd4#
1...fxe4 2 Qe6#
1...Nfxe4 2 Nxd3#
1...Ncxe4 2 Rxd5#
1...Bxe4 2 d4#
1...Rxe4 2 Qxf5#
1...Qxe4 2 Qh8#
1...Kxe4 2 Re8#
"No matter which way Black captures the knight, White has a different mating move. All other defensive moves by Black are quite soberly met with 2 Re8#. There is a lot in this wonderfully beautiful problem."
There is more on the composer, Arthur Mosely, on this website, at http://www.chessproblem.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=268.