Imagine a kingdom without a king; a kingless kingdom, if you will. Who would govern? An interim ruler until a king was crowned? Or would there be an uprising and the kingdom itself overturned? These are weighty questions.

In our game of checkers, however, "kingless" has a much different meaning, fortunately having nothing to due with rulers and crowns and uprisings. Bill Salot brings us once again a series of kingless problems in his latest problem composing contest, #69 in the series. A unique feature is that all of the positions are drawn when properly played.

As a nice example, here is a problem called Hot Spot, composed by Roy Little. It won 2nd place in Contest 45 a few years back.

Hot Spot by Roy Little
BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Draw

W:W5,17,21,22,23,26,31:B2,6,7,8,10,14,15,16

Give this one a try (you can see the solution by clicking on Read More) and then head over to the Contest Page for four more excellent problems with the same theme. And don't forget to vote for your favorite!

Solution

Hot Spot

*22 18, 15-22, *31 27, 22-31, *5 1, 31-24, *23 18, 14-23, *17 14, 10-17, *1 26, Drawn.

Now on to the contest problems!