LOC Public Domain

It's May and summer is just around the corner. We're writing this in March so we don't know how late winter and early spring unfolded, but we're hoping that everyone came through it in good health and spirit. We trust that some merriment will be in order, perhaps such as a beautiful walk in the park, followed by this nice checker problem sent along by Josh and Lloyd Gordon of Toronto.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Draw

B:WK4,14,19,26,30,32:B3,6,11,17,24,28

White has the first king but it's trapped in the corner, so maybe Black can pull off the draw. The problem itself isn't all that tough, although it's a little bit beyond the strict "speed" category. So take as much time as you need, after which you "may" click your mouse on Read More to see the solution.

Stay safe and well, checker fans, wherever you are.

Solution

24-27---A 32x23 28-32 23-18 32-27 19-15 27-31 15x8 31x15 14-10 3x12 10x1 to a draw.

A---A nice pitch.

And no, you didn't do a double take. Brian Hinkle pointed out that we had duplicated a problem from a column just two months ago, and we quickly scrambled to replace it! Thanks go to Brian for his alert warning.