July 4, 2021 will be the day after the date of publication of this column. It's a brighter and more hopeful 4th of July than it was last year, when we were in the midst of the worst pandemic in a hundred years. But America is recovering, as it always has, and the future is looking better all the time.

At The Checker Maven we remain and always shall remain unabashed and unapologetic patriots. We believe in America and we believe in the American people. We're proud to celebrate the 4th of July, America's birthday.

Every year we turn to Tom Wiswell, himself a true patriot who served America in so many ways. Mr. Wiswell was famous not only for his great playing skill and masterful problem compositions; he also produced many wise and pithy quotes. We especially like this one: "Hard work makes playing easy." We think it's typically American.

And now here's today's problem.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W10,14,16,24,25,31:B1,2,3,5,23

White is a piece up but is bound to lose a man. Can you notch the full point by finding a win and avoiding what looks to be an inevitable draw? "Hard work makes play easy" --- this one will be a bit of work, but you can make it look easy. When you've found your solution, click on Read More to independently verify your work.

Solution

Mr. Wiswell titled his problem Ambushed.

24-19 2-6 19-15 6-9 15-11 9-18 11-7 5-9 7-2---A 9-13 16-11 13-17 10-6! 1-10 31-26 23-30 2-6 20-31 6-15-22-13 White Wins.

A---This and the next White move can be made in either order.

Mr. Wiswell further comments, "One of the first things a good problem solver does is look for an idea ... A little time spent in trying to locate the theme ... will often work wonders."

We hope you enjoyed today's problem and we further hope you'll join us in celebrating the Fourth of July.