Something Different

     Off and on for the last few days I have been dipping in to the book The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes: Fifty Tantalizing Problems of Chess Detection by by Raymond M. Smullyan. 

     This is not a book of chess problems but a book of logic puzzles about chess positions with Holmes and Watson as the main characters. The puzzles are challenging, novel, and ingenious. 

     In the positions you have to, for example, deduce whether white has moved a Knight, or whether the Queen was promoted, etc. Like in all Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Holmes, by his remarkable powers of deduction, is able to demonstrate what must have happened.

     If you don’t enjoy solving standard chess problems then this book could prove interesting as you are given a chess position and a seemingly impossible question to answer question about it. The questions can all be answered by deduction and there are some trick questions. 

     Reading the reviews of the book showed most people liked it, but one who probably couldn’t solve any of the problems called it “total nonsense.” 

     Here’s a problem from the book. White to mate in one...there are two solutions. 

If you get stumped see the solutions  HERE