Our heroine above is dangling above --- well, we don't know what. A bottomless ravine? A pit filled with rattlesnakes? A fiery inferno? We can only hope that she finds her way to safety.

Similar situations come up in the game of checkers. Sometimes, a piece is dangling and can't be rescued. Or it might suffer a different fate, or something else altogether.

There's a point to all this. Today's Checker School entry is a very old problem from Joshua Sturges. It isn't especially hard; indeed, it's just about a ten second speed problem. But it's very instructive and rather neat. After you've solved it, you may see why this column has the title that it does, and that "dangling" can have an alternative meaning.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:WK25,K32,28:BK31,K23,20

The problem is found (among many other places) in the "Problems for Beginners" section of Andrew J. Banks' Checker Board Strategy. We're not sure if a complete beginner could solve it, but it's within reach of anyone above novice level.

Don't let the solution dangle; find it and click on Read More to verify your answer.

Solution

White goes a piece down to win.

28-24! 20-27 25-22 and Black is lost---A. As Mr. Banks puts it, "The King on 23 is immobile, pendent, dangling."

A---23-26 28-30; or 31-26 22-24. Very nice symmetry, and it teaches us that we should never leave our game dangling but instead always seek a good move.