A curious chess puzzle by T.R. Dawson. White is to mate in four moves, with the stipulation that white men that are guarded may not move.
This seems immediately impossible. The two rooks guard one another, and one of them guards the king. And moving the pawn will place it under the king’s protection, leaving White completely frozen. How can he proceed?
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That assessment isn’t quite accurate. Moving the pawn to c4 shields the king from the rook, which permits it to move and, in turn, break the connection between the rooks:
1. c4 Ka2 2. Kc5 (K moves) 3. Kb5 Ka2 4. Ra7#.
There’s a philosophical quibble here: It might be argued that the black king can still escape via b1, since the rook on b4, guarded by the king, doesn’t really menace that square. “The argument is the same as that in normal chess where a pinned man may check the adverse K,” Dawson contends. “Guarded-man immobility does not apply when captures of the Black K are in question.”
From Caissa’s Fairy Tales (1947).
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