THE HASTINGS CHALLENGER No. 3

SOLUTION

White to play and mate in 2

Comins Mansfield

Morning Post 1923

Mates (“set plays”) are already provided against all Black’s legal moves – if the rook leaves the g-file there is 2.Ng3 mate, if the rook leaves the 2nd rank, there is 2.N1d2 mate, and if 1…d3 there is Qe7 mate. However, White has no suitable waiting move to preserve these mates.

He therefore abandons them and sets up new mates with the key 1.Qa6. Now rook moves allow either 2.Qe2 mate or 2.Qg6 mate, whilst 1…d3 is met by 2.Qe6 mate. This type of problem, in which set plays are abandoned and new changed mates set up, is called a mutate. The composer, Comins Mansfield, was the first English grandmaster of chess composition, and is widely regarded as possibly the greatest-ever two-move composer.

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