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Sheffield Morning Telegraph, 1985

#3

1.Kg6! (2.Kf5 & 3.Qe4#)

1...Rc4 2.Sb8  & 3.Sxc6#
1...c4  2.Se3  & 3.Sf5#

In the first variation the black rook incarcerates the bPc4 while the pawn returns the ‘favour’ in the second variation. Quiet play throughout.

This was the first orthodox #3 that I managed to compose (in 1977 or 1978) and I felt it a huge step forward in my composing. I was thus very disappointed when Peter Copping (then #3 editor of The Problemist) rejected it for publication on the grounds that it was too simple. That rejection explains why it was published years later in the daily Sheffield newspaper. The columnist there at the time was Mike Littlewood (bother of the more famous John and Norman), who was happy to publish it. Of course, that newspaper has long since ceased publication.