"I wouldn't mind being a millionaire," said Louie the Flash, "and I'm sure my girlfriend wouldn't mind if I was either."

"Sure," said Mike, "if you were a millionaire you might keep a girlfriend longer than a month!"

"Hey," Louie replied, "I've been with Hortense now for ... uh, well ... I guess it's only three weeks but it's looking really good."

"I watched that new TV show, too," Dan said, "about that guy that gives a million dollars to someone and then we see how everything goes wrong. Like the one the other night about that school teacher ..."

"Too much money all at once can be a problem; people don't handle it well," said Wayne, "but I wouldn't mind trying it myself. Too bad that's just a TV show."

The Coffee and Cake Checker Club had just begun their regular Saturday afternoon meeting at the Beacon Cafe. A number of the "boys" were on hand (all but one of them 50 years old at a minimum). The club met from just after Labor Day until just before Memorial Day to solve checker problems, talk checkers, and play skittles games. However today the talk had drifted off to the topic of that new TV show "The Millionaire" which had just come on the air in the last couple of weeks.

But Sal Westerman, the club's unoffical leader, spoke up and said, "This is all very interesting, boys, but I've got a checker problem that's at lot more interesting. How about you take it on now?"

The tradition was that if the boys could solve the weekly problem, Sal would buy everyone the fabulous baked treats that Deana, the Beacon's proprietess, had on offer. If they couldn't solve it the boys would buy for Sal and his wife.

"I've got fresh fudge brownies," Deana called out from behind her counter, and then added with a laugh, "baked from my million dollar recipe!"

The boys laughed too, and Sal set up the following position on one of the boards in the big booth at the back of the cafe.

"Now," Sal said, "you don't get a million minutes to solve it. But seeing as how this problem is from my friend Ed in Pennsylvania, I'll give you a full hour. He calls it 'Land's End'."

Ed was one of Sal's checker pen pals and was known for his clever, if often difficult, problem compositions.

Deana refilled everyone's coffee mugs and the boys dug into the problem.

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We can't offer you a million dollars, and neither can we offer you fudge brownies. But do try to solve the problem, and then click on Read More to see the solution.

Solution

An hour went by quickly and Sal said, "Time's up, boys. Did you get it?"

"No luck," Wayne said, "show us."

Sal played out the following solution.

10-7---A 1-10 7-3 White Wins---B.

A---Not 19-15 11-16 15-11 18-14 17-13 14-7 11-2 1-10 2-7 10-14 Drawn.

B---Black is in zugzwang, a term borrowed from chess that basically means that any move made leads to a loss. In this case, Black must move into it: If any move by the Black King, 3-8 gets two for one. If 11-15, then 3-7 gets two for one. Finally, if 10-14 17-10 18-23 (or 18-15), then 3-8 wins.

"I guess we're buying," said Wayne, "although I hope the tab doesn't come to a million dollars."

"Why not?" Deana said as she carried a tray of treats over to the big booth. "My brownies are worth it!"

That got more smiles from the boys, who enjoyed their treats and their checker fun until Deana's five o'clock closing time.

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Problem and notes are by the late grandmaster problem composer Edgar Atkinson. This is one of the last of his problems in our collection. As with all of Ed's compositions, it sparkles.