"There's more than one way to do it" is a common enough phrase, and it seems to have gotten attached to the scripting language Perl, due to Perl's extreme (some say excessive) flexibility. At The Checker Maven Perl scripts figure prominently in our computer work, and, even though the modern trend is more towards the Python language, we persist. But that discussion is even further off-topic.

Today's problem, submitted by regular contributors Lloyd and Josh Gordon of Toronto has two main solutions, hence "more than one way to do it." One of the solutions occurred in over the board play, while the other, which is quite different, is due to KingsRow computer analysis.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W30,23,22,19,16:B14,12,10,7,6.

Which solution will you find? Can you see them both? To find out, there's only one way to do it: click on Read More.

Solution

The over the board solution:

22-18 14-17---A 18-15 10-14 15-11 7-10 11-7 6-9 16-11 17-22 7-2 22-26 19-15 10x19 23x16 12x19 30x16 White Wins---B.

A---6-9 18-15 White Wins.

B---A very nice finish.

The computer solution:

30-26---C 6-9 22-18 14-17 18-15 10-14 15-10 White Wins.

C---A very subtle waiting move, forcing Black to play 6-9, leading to the ultimate exposure of the man on 7. Did you see it? Do you see why 30-25 won't work?

The over the board solution seems quite natural to us. The computer solution is shorter, but involves visualizing the downstream effect of the subtle initial move, 30-26. The contrast is very interesting.