This woman is either brave and skilled, or courting disaster, risking a fatal squeeze from a huge, powerful snake.

Today in our Checker School series, we return to the adventures of Skittle and Nemo, as found in Andrew Banks' Checker Board Strategy. The title of our column is a big hint for the solution to the problem below, so we're not giving much more away when we note that Skittle warned Nemo, "Always look well before you squeeze a piece."

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Win

B:W14,K24,28:BK19,K22

White has just blundered badly by playing 27-24. (White really should have won, so for extra credit, give a better move for White.)

This one is super easy and probably will be solved at once by players of any level above novice. (We like to have a balance in our columns; we don't want to squeeze anyone out by just publishing difficult positions.) When you've found the solution, check your work by squeezing the mouse button with the cursor on Read More.

Solution

White would have held the win with 14-10, 14-9, or even 27-31, although that's rather on the slow side. (Note that 27-32? would give Black a man-down draw after 19-23, a rather instructive result.)

22-17 24-15 17-19 Black Wins.

This is really more of a five second speed problem than a Checker School problem, but it does illustrate the need for careful play even in a winning position.