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This weekend The Checker Maven completes an unbelievable 14 years of continuous publication with never a missed deadline. Week after week we've brought you something about checkers, and from what you've told us, you've seemed to enjoy it.

Originally we were going to publish for 10 years. We upped that to 15 and called that a "hard" limit. That leaves us one year to go. But we turned to Mr. Bill Salot for inspiration; he's in his eighties, going strong in every possible way, and makes no excuses about age or health as he continues to support our game of checkers.

So we're going to continue publication. There's no saying how long that will be--- your editor has serious eyesight issues, for one thing--- but we won't quit as long as we can physically continue.

It seems only fitting to celebrate this anniversary and this announcement by going back to our origins, with a "Coffee and Cake" problem from Brian Hinkle. Recall that a "Coffee and Cake" problem is one that you show to your checker friends and bet them coffee and cake that they can't solve it. Brian calls this one "Trumped" (no political reference intended).

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play, What Result?

W:W10,12,24,K27:B3,7,26,K30.

Stay the course. Don't make excuses. Carry on. We wouldn't call this an easy problem, but--- like publishing The Checker Maven every week--- your efforts will be well rewarded. When you've found the right moves, click on Read More to check your solution.

Solution

The position is a White win. But it's not so simple.

24-20---A 7x14 12-8! 3x12 27-31---B 14-17 31x13 30-26 13-17 26-23 17-14 23-19 14-10 19-24 10-15 24-28 15-19 28-32 20-16 32-28 16-11 White Wins---C

A---Nothing else will win. The "obvious" 27-31 gets "trumped": 27-31 7x14 31x22 3-7 24-19 7-11 12-8 14-18 22x15 11x18 Drawn.

B---Now this works!

C---A textbook First Position win.

Thanks to Brian Hinkle for sharing this with us and with you. And here's to hopefully many more years of Checker Maven!

Guillaume Speurt from Vilnius, Lithuania CC BY-SA 2.0