E-Book Overview
Here are 50 elegant, witty chess problems concerned with deducing events in a game's past. In the first half, Holmes instructs Watson in the intricacies of retrograde analysis while the two examine interrupted games. The second half features increasingly difficult self-contained chess mysteries, including a double murder perpetrated by Professor Moriarty.
E-Book Content
The CHESS MYSTERIES of SHERLOCK HOLMES The CHESS MYSTERIES of SHERLOCK HOLMES by RAYMOND SMULLYAN HUTCHINSON London Melbourne Sydney Auckland Johannesburg Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd An imprint of the Hutchinson Publishing Group 3 Fitzroy Square, London W1P 6JD Hutchinson Group (Australia) Pty Ltd 30-32 Cremorne Street, Richmond South, Victoria 3121 PO Box 151, Broadway, New South Wales 2007 Hutchinson Group (NZ) Ltd 32-34 View Road, PO Box 40—086, Glenfield, Auckland 10 Hutchinson Group (SA) (Pty) Ltd PO Box 337, Bergvlei 2012, South Africa First published 1980 © Raymond Smullyan 1980 The paperback edition of this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser Printed in Great Britain by The Anchor Press Ltd and bound by Wm Brendon & Son Ltd both of Tiptree, Essex British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Smullyan, Raymond Merrill The chess mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. 1. Chess problems I. Title 974.1 GV1451 ISBN 0 09 140531 9 (paper) To My Wife BLANCHE and to the Memory of My Brother EMILE and of My Dear Friend THEODORE SHEDLOVSKY CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix A Note for the Chess Detective xi Part I: SHERLOCK HOLMES at the CHESSBOARD A MATTER OF DIRECTION 3 A DELIGHTFUL VARIATION 12 16 A LITTLE EXERCISE WHICH COLOR? 21 ANOTHER MONOCHROMATIC 24 A QUESTION OF SURVIVAL 26 MYSTERY OF THE MISSING PIECE 29 YOU REALLY CAN' T, YOU KNOW! 38 44 TWO BAGATELLES SIR REGINALD'S JEST A RETURN VISIT 48 51 MYCROFT' S PROBLEM 58 A LITTLE QUESTION OF LOCATION 61 "TO KNOW THE PAST " 68 A STUDY IN IMAGINARY CHECKS AN UNSOLVED PROBLEM vii 76 73 1 CONTENTS Part II: MARSTON'S ISLAND 81 83 ABOARD SHIP 87 THE MYSTERY OF THE INDIAN CHESS SET 89 ANOTHER QUESTION OF LOCATION 90 HOLMES SETTLES A DISPUTE 93 THE CASE OF THE DROPPED PAWN FROM WHERE? DIFFICULT ? 95 97 99 THOUGHTS OF A LOGICIAN 105 A QUESTION OF PROMOTION SHADES OF THE PAST 106 112 SOME CHILLING REMINISCENCES A DISPLACED BISHOP 118 120 A REMARKABLE MONOCHROMATIC LADY ASHLEY'S PROBLEM 122 123 A LITTLE MYSTIFICATION ON MARSTON' S ISLAND 124 HOLMES EXPLAINS IT 129 141 EPILOGUE Appendix I: MORIARTY'S PROBLEMS Appendix II: SOLUTIONS 145 151 Appendix III: SOLUTIONS TO MORIARTY'S PROBLEMS 163 viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I wish to thank a graduate student of my Princeton days, who went through earlier versions of several of these puzzles, and provided a host of helpful suggestions. For years I have tried to recall his name but have unfortunately failed. I hope he will see this and get in touch with me, so I can thank him by name in my next book of chess puzzles. It is a pleasure to expre