The holiday season is over for another year, and the post-holiday blahs are inevitable. After the fervor of recent weeks, we're supposed to magically return to normal. It's even worse in much of mainland North America, which is in the dead of winter with short days and cold nights. Feeling a bit down is not unexpected.

We can't bring back that holiday excitement, nor can we make the days longer or warmer. Those latter things will only come further on as the earth continues its revolution about the sun. But we can bring you a short, snappy, pleasing, and rather easy checker problem, one that will give you some instant gratification without taxing your likely tired brain. It was sent to us by Lloyd and "Gosh Josh" Gordon and comes from actual play.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and draw

B:W14,9,6,K11:B3,K18,K2

This isn't just a "blah" problem and you can solve it before you can say "blah blah blah." You likely won't need help but you can always click on Read More to verify your solution.

Solution

3-7 11-16---A 7-10 14-7 2-20 6-1 Drawn.

A---11-8 7-10 14-7 2-4 Drawn.

Not hard at all but quite nice. We hope it was able to revive you a bit!