Daily Rome Shot 806 – Wherein a reader grouses and a nexus with “walking togetherity”

Last night from The World’s Best Sacristan™.  In a few short days, I’ll be walking through this piazza probably several times a day.  Thank you Roman Donors.

Welcome new registrants:

johnnyg
sddave

Meanwhile, as for yesterday’s puzzle commentator anj opined:

Impossible configuration.

Black pawn structure cannot arise in play.

Puzzle Abuse.

Reminds me of the upcoming Synod on synodality. Or whatever they call it.

I respond, saying…

Dear anj:

Puzzles or problems come in all sizes and shapes. Some are from real games and somet are imaginative constructs. The same principles of chess apply.

Try this one. Not, perhaps, impossible but not very probable.

White to move and mate in 3.

This was one of 42 compositions by the “Mark Twain of the Chess World,” P.H. Williams which appeared in 777 “Chess Miniatures in Three” by E. Wallis (1908). Williams wrote the Preface.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Here is a comment by Williams on 3 move mate puzzles from 1904:

‘Regarding the relative merits of slender and ponderous three-movers much may be said. Your readers may notice that my three-movers are always of slight build, and, while I do not claim much difficulty, I do, I believe, secure a fair amount of neatness. When solving the work of others, I put elegance a long way ahead of difficulty. The miniature seems to me the essence of problematic beauty, and though there are, of course, many splendid compositions of heavy build, they do not, as a class, appeal to me. (I speak of three-movers only.) Take, for instance, Loyd’s famous Checkmate prize-winner; the main play is undoubtedly brilliant, but, if the outlying pieces are touched, mating positions will result which are positively hideous, to say nothing of duals. The more ugly the by-play the more is the beauty of the main-play discounted. Not so with a good miniature; play any move of Black, and a beautiful mating position is or should be produced. Duals in a miniature are, to my mind, inexcusable, and I would rather abandon a position than cure a defect by additions, since every added piece seems to weaken the charm of the initial position.’

Here is Williams cordial shredding of a turgid book on chess, Franklin Young’s famously impenetrable The Grand Tactics of Chess.

This fellow could have worked for the Synod on Synodality (“walking together on walking togetherity”) … or whatever they call it.

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In chess news, in OTB I won my two games yesterday.

After that, you may need some wine:

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