This week The Checker Maven reaches the unbelievable milestone of 10 years of continuous on-time weekly publication, with no missed issues and no missed deadlines.

Originally, we had planned to stop here; our business plan called for 10 years of publication and beyond that, we didn't know. But we're going to try for another five years, and G-d willing we'll be able to do it. If we get that far, it will truly be the end of the line.

The last several years have been a struggle, with eyesight difficulties placing greater and greater limits on what we can do, but happily we've been able to keep going.

We're also thankful that we've kept our core readership. We only have about half the readers that we did at our peak, but we still have thousands every week and we still can claim to be the most widely read "straight checkers" publication anywhere.

We also lay claim to having written more checker fiction than anyone else, ever, and though it's not a crowded field, we still think we've done pretty well.

Although we don't get a lot of correspondence--- checker players aren't big on that--- we are happy to have heard from nearly every corner of the world (we're still waiting for Antarctica and the Space Station to check in, but they're about all that's left).

It all comes down to our readers, though; without you, there would be no point and we wouldn't have lasted a year. We hope you'll keep coming back every Saturday morning, and we hope you'll find something that you like. It's been quite a journey, and we owe it all to you. Thanks for staying with us for so much longer than we ever would have expected.

Below, please find our 10th Anniversary problem offering. It's a lead-in to our next serialized story, due to begin some time next year.

One Thousand
BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W32,30,27,26,24,22,21,18,14,10:B20,17,16,13,11,8,7,5,3,1.

When you're ready, click on Read More to reveal the action-packed solution.

Solution

27-23 20x27 14-9 7x14---A 9-6 1x10 18x9 5x14 23-18 14x23 21x7 3x10 26x3 27-31 3-7 to a White win.

A--- 5x14 leads to the same ending: 18x9 7x14 9-6 1x10 23-18 14x23 21x7 3x10 26x3 27-31 3-7 to a White win.

We like this one in that it requires the visualization of a stroke problem while containing elements of a traditional over-the-board problem.

What does this have to do with our next serialized story? We've already given you a hint, although you may not realize it--- yet.

Keep reading The Checker Maven to find out more!