Josef Breuer
A problem which would surely have pleased the great Sam Loyd, being
reminiscent of his style.
With 1...Se5 giving the king a flight at g3 and 2.Qxe5 delivering stalemate the spectacular 1.Qh2 is a
natural move to consider. Black must play 1...Sxh2, to defend against 2.g3. Now White underpromotes with
2.b8B, again threatening 3.g3, and after 2...Sg4 3.Bf4 places Black in zugzwang, while revealing
the stalemate trap that determined a promotion to bishop rather than queen. 3...S any 4.g3. After
2...Sf1 White has dual continuations 3.Bc7, 3.Bd6 or 3.Be5, mating on the d8-h4 diagonal after
3...Sg3.
Guy Meissonnier: What a beautiful chess nut with an underpromotion!
Jacob Hoover: I’ve always found Sam Loyd’s problems, as well as problems based on
Loyd’s style, to be quite fascinating, and this one was no different, featuring an anti-critical
clearance sacrifice followed by an underpromotion with the idea of avoiding stalemate.