William Veal was a British problemist of some renown, perhaps best known (to us, at least) for composing a monster stroke problem featured some years ago in our columns.

Did Mr. Veal's ancestors at one point deal in veal? That would fit with popular theory, which insists that names like "Smith" eventually trace back to someone who was a smith, and so on. Of course, those links are likely very tenuous if they exist at all.

But one other possibility was turned up by our Research Department. "Vieil" is the Old French term for "old" and this became "viel" in Anglo-Norman French. It refers to an old man or the elder of two people with the same name. It's not a long leap from there to "Veal."

A long leap? That brings us back to checkers and this month's Checker School column, the first of a series of "gems" from, of course, William Veal.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:WK11,14,18,K21:B6,K19,22,26.

Certainly at first glance a White win is anything but obvious, and Black is poised to crown one or perhaps two of his men. Can you match Mr. Veal and find the solution? There's a bit of a clue (just a bit) in the writeup above. See how you do and then click on Read More to see the solution.

Solution

14-10 6x15 18-14 15-18 11-15 19x17 21x30---A, White Wins.

A---The "long leap' to a White win. Okay, it wasn't that much of a hint.