chess

White to play and win (composed by Bernhard Horwitz).

This piece of 19th-century whimsy first appeared in 1885. The first stage is to get White's bishop to f7: 1.Kd5 Kc7 2.Bb5 Qg8 3.Be8 Qh8 4.Bf7 Kb8 but what now? Let's plough on and see what happens: 5.Kc6 Qg8! 6.Kd7! (Bxg8 is stalemate) Qh8 7.Ke8 Kc7 and now comes the clever bit: 8.b8=Q+! Kxb8 9.Kd8 Ka8 10.Kc8 Qg8 11.Kc7! when 11...Qh8 is met by 12.Be8 and 13.Bc6 mate. So Black must play 11...Qxf7 12.gxf7 g6 13.hxg6 h5 14.Kd8 h4 15.Ke8 Bh6 16.Kxe7 h3 17.f8=Q+ Bxf8+ 18.Kxf8 h2 19.e7 and wins.