Christmas Day 2010 falls on a Saturday, so most everyone will have a long weekend to celebrate or just relax according to your own traditions and preferences. It's time for family and friends and lots of activities, but we know that if you're a checker player, you'll be looking for something from The Checker Maven to make checkers part of your holiday weekend.

To that end, we've chosen a special problem that is very engaging (often this is another word for 'difficult') and bound to hold your interest. It requires skill and considerable planning, but we think you're up to the challenge.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Win

B:W26,21,20,19,16:B17,14,8,3,2.

Black has more mobility than White; that's always an advantage in checkers, but is it enough to turn into a win? We'll warn you; definitively proving the win is a long process and requires very careful play. It's something you might want to take on when dinner is over and the company has left, when you might have an hour or so to devote to checkers.

Clicking on Read More will as usual show you the solution. Happy Holidays to one and all from The Checker Maven.

Solution

The solution is a long one and we present it in columnar fashion for easier reading. With a solution of this length, many variations are of course possible and you might wish to explore them with the aid of your computer checkers engine.

A---This move, which is repeated later, is necessary to prevent a White draw via 16-11.

B---A win requiring much patience and precision.

C---When the problem was originally published, 12-8 was proposed to get a White draw, but it fails to 12-8 3x12 11-7 14-18 21x14 6-10 14-9 10-14 7-2 14-17 and Black wins the man on 26.