[Retros] Henrik Juel's SPG 3.5

andrew buchanan andrew at anselan.com
Tue Feb 15 15:47:14 EST 2005


Len Barden's nightly chess article in the London Evening Standard is the
short SPG in 3.5 by Henrik Juel, 1996. Barden's text runs:

"At first glance this seems like a normal Pirc Defence 1 e4 d6 so why call
it a puzzle? Look a little closer, and you will see that Black's c8 bishop
has mysteriously disappeared from the board. In fact, it's a game where
White has just made his 4th move, and you have to reconstruct what happened.
Still sounds easy? Try the obvious sequence 1 e4 d6 2 Qe2 Bg4 3 Qxg4 and 4
Qd1. Fine, but what was Black's third turn? The true solution is really
cunningly subtle, considering the game lasts only four moves, and if you can
work it out in 15 minutes without peeking at the bottom of the page your
creativity should be well above average."

Barden is an old-school chess master from the UK, who has been writing his
column for ever. Most of his columns are how-to-win problems from games, but
he also interested in compositions of all kinds, and publishes them as often
as he feels he can get away with. A few years ago, he published an at-home
composition by Ronald Turnbull.

Congrats to Henrik!

Cheers,
Andrew.





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