This Week's World Chess Column: Remembering Ray Smullyan and his Retrograde Analysis Puzzles

I recently noted the passing of logician, mathematician, and puzzle-maker extraordinaire Raymond Smullyan; in my World Chess column this week I present some of his retrograde analysis chess puzzles from the first of his two books on the topic, The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. Enjoy.

Comments

[Ron Fenton]

Well done Dennis. A fitting tribute to one of the greats. I can't play the game worth a damn but I can't resist a good puzzle and Smullyan's works were beyond entertaining..His two retrograde books are on my 'stranded on a desert island' list for sure.

[DM: Not a bad choice, but "How to Build a Boat Using Only Materials Found on a Desert Island" would be better still!]

[MIKE TWYBLE]

A nice tribute. Whenever I think about Smullyan I am reminded of the game below involving an old teammate Lawrence Trent and a very strong grandmaster. The position on move 21 is worthy of being in any retrograde analysis article.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1507207
Trent- Kotrnias EU championship 2008.

[DM: It is a very funny position.]