Vol. 1, No. 1, Jan.-Mar. 1998
R0001 - Thomas Volet
StrateGems Vol.1,No.1, Jan.-Mar. 1998
The last moves were: -1. Ra3-a8 e5xRd4 -2. Ra6xPa3 a4-a3 -3. Rh6-a6 e6-e5 -4. Rh8-h6 a5-a4 -5. h7-h8=R a6-a5 -6. g6xRh7. Further retractions are: h3xBg4-g6; Ra8-h7; Bc8-g4; c6xPb7-b8=B-g1.
R0002v - Henrik Juel
StrateGems Vol.1,No.4, Oct.-Dec. 1998 for the corrected version
The parity of the position establishes that Black moved last, yet black has no possible last move. Removing any unit legalises the position.
R0003 - Gianni Donati
For Emily
Last moves are: -1. ... c4xb3 ep -2. b2-b4 Rb4-a4 -3. Kd4-c5 Nd6-b5 -4. Kc5-d4.
Black's pawns have made 12 captures. White has four units left. Therefore, black's last move was not a capture, and must have been a non-capturing discovered check. Five discovered checks appear to be possible. Which occurred? White's immediately preceding last move could not have been by the pawn at a6, because black has fifteen pieces and white's pawns at g4 and g5 account for the only capture made by white. Nor could it have been by the white king since b1 and b2 are triple-attacked and the white king would have been in retro-check on those squares. Therefore, white's last move was by the g4 or g5 pawn. The capture made by the g4 or g5 pawn was not of a black pawn, since black's h-file has no capture available for it to reach the g-file. Therefore, one of white's pawns captured a black piece. That capture cannot have been recent, for after the capture (which must have been from the h-file as otherwise black's a-file pawn would not be accounted for), black's h-file pawn promoted to replace whatever piece was captured. Therefore, white's last move was a move, not a capture, by the g4 or g5 pawn. Only the pawn at g4 could have moved last, and to make the move available, g3 could not have been occupied. Therefore, white played g3-g4, and black played Nf1-g3.
P0001 - Mark Kirtley
1. b3 g6 2. Bb2 Bg7 3. Ba3 Na1 4. Bc1 Bc3 5. dc3 b6 6. Kd2 Ba6 7. Qe1 Bb7 8. Kd3 Bc8 9. Kc4
P0002 - David P. Moulton
(This problem was later found to be cooked)
1. h4 a5 2. h5 a4 3. Rh4 Ra5 4. Rb4 Rh5 5. d4 d5 6. Qd3 Be6 7. Qe4 de4 8. Bg5 Ba2 9. Bf6 Bd5 10. Ra3 Rh1 11. Rf3 h5 12. Rf5 h4 13. f4 h3 14. Kf2 h2 15. Kg3 Rh3 16. Kg4 Ra3 17. e3 Ra1 18. Be2 a3 19. Bd1 a2
However, this is cooked: 1. h4 a5 2. h5 Ra6 3. h6 Rh6 4. Rh5 d5 5. Rf5 Rh1 6. d4 h5 7. Qd3 h4 8. Qe4 de4 9. Bg5 Be6 10. f4 h3 11. Kf2 Ba2 12. Kg3 Bd5 13. Kg4 h2 14. Ra4 Rh3 15. Rb4 Ra3 16. e3 Ra1 17. Be2 a4 18. Bd1 a3 19. Bf6 a2
P0003 - Noam Livnat
P0004 - Olli Heimo
1. a4 b5 2. Ra3 b4 3. Re3 b3 4. a5 bc2 5. b4 h5 6. Ba3 c1=Q 7. b5 Qc6 8. b6 Qg3 9. hg3 c5 10. Bh3 c4 11. Kf1 c3 12. Kg2 c2 13. Kg3 c1=Q 14. Kf4 Qc7 15. Ke4 Qg3 16. Be6 d6 17. Bc4 Be6 18. hg3 Nd7 19. Rh4 Rc8 20. Rg4 h4 21. b7 h3 22. b8=Q h2 23. Qb2 h1=Q 24. Qf6 Qh6 25. Nh3 Qf4 26. gf4 ef6 27. Ng5 Bf5 28. Kd5 Qe7 29. Re7