[Retros] Accidental retro

Noam Elkies elkies at math.harvard.edu
Fri Feb 3 20:58:40 EST 2006


Leafing through a copy of Laszlo Polgar's _5334 Problems, Combinations,
and Games_ that I saw on a coffeetable earlier today, I noticed
the following miniature in the Mates In Two section (#2940, p.547):

W Kg6 Rf6 Nc8 Pe6 Pf7 = 5
B Kf8 Pe7 = 2

+-----------------+
| . _ N _ . k . _ |
| _ . _ . p P _ . |
| . _ . _ P R K _ |
| _ . _ . _ . _ . |
| . _ . _ . _ . _ |
| _ . _ . _ . _ . |
| . _ . _ . _ . _ |
| _ . _ . _ . _ . |
|_________________|

The retroanalytic content is surely not intentional:
The entire chapter is marked "Mate in Two, White to move",
and all the problems in this section are miniatures where
White has a set mate to each Black move but, for lack of
a neutral waiting move, must find a key that either changes
or adds to the set mate(s).

NDE



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