American Indian

[garykevinware]

In last week's topic, Excelsior, we looked at a case where Sam Loyd was the most famous composer of a theme, but he had been preceded by a few years by Robert B. Wormald. We have a similar situation this week, as Sam Loyd dubbed his theme, "The American Indian", not to be confused with the Indian Theme, but he was preceded by a few years by a problem by Benjamin G. Laws.



B.G. Laws The Morning Post January 5, 1885 #2

You can see two of Sam Loyd's 'American Indians' in my article, 64 Square Problem Tour, http://main.uschess.org/content/view/8199/436, at 'A6' and 'F8'. Loyd named the theme, American Indian, in apparent reference to the Indian's warpath tactic of ambushing his enemy. He defined the theme as follows, "The key withdraws a guarding piece to a remote square, so as to attack a Black man, which in turn threatens a White piece, previously guarded by the key piece, but now open to capture by the Black King. If the Black man captures the piece initially guarded, the key piece passes through the square vacated by the Black man, and captures a second Black man, giving mate."

Here are a couple more 'American Indians' for you to solve:



Eric M. Hassberg New York Post April 21, 1945 #2



Vincent L. Eaton Melbourne Leader 1936 #2

6 points possible this week, for sending me a complete variation to each problem, at garykevinware@yahoo.com , by next Wednesday.

[garykevinware]

Here are the answers to last week's problems:
Laws #2-
1 Re8 Rxd3 2 Rxc8#
1...Kxd3 2 Qe4#
1...Rxe8 2 Nd6#
Hassberg #2-
1 Qc2 Rxg7 2 Qxh2#
1...Rxc2 2 Rh7#
Eaton #2-
1 Rb3 Rf4 2 Rb5#
1...Re4 2 Nd3#
1...Nf4 2 Nf3#
1...f4 Rxg5#
1...Kf4+ 2 Rgc3#

Siegfried Hornecker suggested the following more economical set-up of B.G. Laws problem.



Siegfried also suggested another American Indian problem:



Sally and Tony Lewis 1st Prize The Problemist 2004 #2

Also, in relation to my recent post, Excelsior, since it means 'onward and upward', or 'ever higher', Siegfried thought of the following story. "In 1970, thirteen years after its original publication, a chess problem was taken into space by the crew of Soviet mission Soyuz 9, cosmonauts Nikolaev and Sevastianov."



Valentin Rudenko 1st Prize Suomen Shakki 1957 #3

The last two problems are 'bonus' problems for this week, and a complete variation for each, sent to me at garykevinware@yahoo.com , by next Wednesday, will earn you 5 points. I will be posting the regular problems, later this evening.

[Alexander George]

Wonderful news about the cosmonauts! Is this a first? Why did they choose that problem? Siegfried, do you know more about this? Thanks for passing it on!

[garykevinware]

Here is the link to the story, in Russian:
http://www.selivanov.ru/newss/?act=show_news&id=109

[Alexander George]

Siegfried H. also sends in this link to a further discussion on MatPlus:

http://www.matplus.net/pub/start.php?ap ... om&tid=538

[garykevinware]

Here are the solutions to last week's bonus problems:
Lewis #2-
1 Bc1 Bxe5 2 Bxa3#
1...Kxe5 2 Qf4#
1...Bc4 2 Nxc4#
1...Rd5 2 Qxd5#
1...Rf1 2 Qd5#
http://www.matplus.net/pub/start.php?px=1253234320&app=forum&act=posts&fid=gen&tid=71&pid=314#n314
Rudenko #3-
1 Bf4 Nxf4 2 Nxf4 ~ 3 Be2#
1...h5 2 Bxg3 ~ 3 Nf2#
1...Nc1 2 Nxc1 ~ 3 Be2#
1...Ng1 2 Nxg1 ~ 3 Be2#
1...Nd4 2 Nxd4 ~ 3 Be2#

[Siegfried Hornecker]

Looking through the MatPlus pastime twomovers I solved I find this one:


J. Laybourn
Nationaltinde 1891

It's quite solver-friendly and even more if you know the theme.
MatPlus statistics for the solving move (the problem only got correct claims):
Claims: 12
Average seconds: 91.7500

[Siegfried Hornecker]

Fritz Hoffmann
Stuttgarter Zeitung, 24th April 2010
Mate in 2

Does this also count? I don't know...

[garykevinware]

You are thinking that it could be an American Indian, due to the variation, 1 Ra3 Rxe4 2 Rxa5#. However, according to Sam Loyd's definition of the American Indian, "The key withdraws a guarding piece to a remote square, so as to attack a Black man, which in turn threatens a White piece, previously guarded by the key piece, but now open to capture by the King. If the Black man captures the piece initially guarded, the key piece passes through the square vacated by the Black man, and captures a second Black man, giving mate.", it is not an American Indian, but a 'half-breed'. If the Black rook on g4 was on a4, and the same variation worked, which it does not, then it would be an American Indian.