Helpmate

A helpmate is a type of chess problem in which both sides cooperate in order to achieve the goal of checkmating Black. In a helpmate in n moves, Black moves first, then White, each side moving n times, to culminate in White's nth move checkmating Black. (In a helpmate in two for example, sometimes abbreviated h#2, the solution consists of a Black move, a White move, a second Black move, then a second White move, giving checkmate.) Although the two sides cooperate, all moves must be legal according to the rules of chess.

The example problem to the right is a helpmate in eight (or h#8) by Z. Maslar, published in Die Schwalbe in 1981. The solution is (recall that in helpmate solutions, Black's move is given first): 1. Kf3 Kd3 2. Bb3 Kc3 3. Ke4+ Kd2 4. Kd4 Ke2 5. Kc3 Nb4 6. Kb2 Kd2 7. Ka1 Kc1 8. Ba2 Nc2#

The first helpmate problem was by the German chess master Max Lange, published in Deutsche Schachzeitung, December, 1854. The problem had White to move and White could play in a number of different ways to achieve the same mate (duals), considered a serious flaw today.

In The Chess Monthly, November 1860, American puzzle inventor Sam Loyd published the first helpmate with Black to move as is now standard, one intended main line, and an attractive but false solution (a try) to mislead solvers. However this problem too had a minor dual, and also had the major flaw (or cook) of having a second, completely separate solution, not noted by the author. Even so, it was a much better problem than Lange's and its presentation incorporating a story written by D. W. Fiske, established the genre. [1]

The first completely sound helpmate was by A. Barbe of Leipzig, published in 105 Leipziger Ill. Familien-Journal, 1861. [2]

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