BRITISH CHESS PROBLEM SOCIETY

The Nightrider has been one of the most popular unorthodox pieces since its invention by T. R. Dawson over 90 years ago. It is a line-moving piece like the queen, rook and bishop, moving any number of knight moves in the same direction, hence a nightrider at a1 can move to b3, c5, d7, c2, e3 or g4. A check from a1 to a king on d7 can be parried by a move to b3 or c5. An example using nightriders can be seen in the introductory material on Fairies.

1.Nb1 threat 2.f4; 1...Rxd4 2.Nd6 (2.f4? Rd2!); 1...Nxd4 2.f8N (2.f4? Nf3!); 1...Nh7 2.d5. The key sets up a battery. Black’s two main defences are self-pinning captures on d4, anticipating that the threat will unpin the black piece, allowing it to interpose on the nightrider’s line. In each case White responds with a mate which exploits the pin. Such strategy is named after a great composer who died very prematurely, Israel Schiffmann (1903-30). The by-play variation features a mating move which shuts off both black pieces.

Jacob Hoover: Excellent problem.

13th August 2018

Selected by Michael McDowell