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BDS & Lawrence Fry

British Chess Magazine, 1994

#2

1.Qd3!  (2.Sc6#)

1...Kxd6 2.Bf4#
1...Rxd3 2.Sc4#
1...Qxd3 2.Sxf7#
1...cxd4 2.Qxd4#
1...Bf3  2.Sxf3#
1...Qe4  2.Sxf7#

Three times over the years I have tried to introduce chess-player friends of mine to chess problems by composing a joint problem with them. The results have been three problems and no recruits to chess composition.

In 1994 Lawrence Fry was a dealer in second-hand books and I was assisting him running a bookstall at Buxton. It was from Lawrence that I acquired my copy of American Chess Nuts and the first twenty years of the magazine CHESS. It was a very quiet day and between us we composed this problem. It isn’t ambitious, just a sacrifical, flight-giving key and some varied mates.

This wasn’t the version submitted for publication. That had another variation and the key was the non-thematic capture of a black pawn and I considered the extra variation was worth the flaw. The then problem editor of BCM insisted that his readers didn’t like capture keys. If the problem had been mine alone I would have sent it elsewhere, but as BCM was the only place Lawrence would be able to see the published problem, I created this version.