This week’s puzzle is an opportunity to enter an annual national competition in which Guardian readers have traditionally performed strongly over many years.
You have to work out how White, playing as usual up the board in the diagram, can force checkmate in two moves, however Black defends.
The puzzle is the first stage of the Winton British Solving Championship, organised by the British Chess Problem Society and open to any British resident. Entry is free and last year’s prize fund totalled £2,000.
If you would like to take part, simply post White’s first move to Nigel Dennis, Boundary House, 230 Greys Road, Henley-on Thames, Oxon RG9 1QY or send it to winton@theproblemist.org by email. Either way, mark your entry “Guardian”.
The closing date is 14 August. After that all solvers will receive the correct answer to the starter problem and those who get it right will also be sent a postal round of eight harder problems, with plenty of time allowed for solving.
If your answers are among the best in the postal round you will qualify for the one-day national final of around 30 solvers to be staged at Eton College on Saturday, 18 February 2017. The winner there will qualify for the Great Britain team at the 2017 world team and individual solving championships. Britain has won several medals at these events in the decade since Winton first sponsored the problem competition and teams.
The starter problem is, as usual, quite tricky with pieces scattered round the board. You can narrow it down if you remember that obvious checks or captures hardly ever solve a two-mover. Look rather for an offbeat choice which you might not consider in an over-the-board game.
Finally be sure to double check your answer in case you have overlooked an obscure black defence. Good luck to all Guardian entrants.
The greatest world champions, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov, used to regard second place in a tournament as a failure and Magnus Carlsen is developing the same perfectionist approach.
When Carlsen finished behind his American arch-rival Hikaru Nakamura in the Paris blitz early this month, some claimed that the Norwegian, a keen soccer fan, was distracted by Euro 2016.
But in the next blitz at Leuven, near Brussels, a few days later Carlsen arrived fully concentrated, outclassed his rivals and won first prize with three rounds to spare.
He was technically a wildcard entry for the $150,000 Grand Tour, where players have to compete in three events out of four. He will be absent from St Louis in August, but there is still a chance that he will be a wildcard again in the final tour event, the London Classic at Olympia in December.
