We've surely all heard variants of the dictate, "When I tell you to jump, you're supposed to ask me, 'How high?'" It's usually implied rather than said outright by, perhaps, a mean boss or someone who abuses their authority.

You'll see the relationship to our game of checkers in the problem below (of course without the abuse factor). The question that arises is more one of "Which way?" rather than "How high?" although the second question does also apply.

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Draw

B:WK7,18,19,21,23,32:B5,6,9,14,20,28

Get a jump on this one; the solution isn't terribly difficult to find but the play is interesting. When you're ready you won't have to jump your mouse very high to click on Read More to view the solution.

Solution

14-17* 21x14 6-10* 18-15---A 10x17*---B 19-16 17-22 etc. to a draw.

A---Other moves can be played here as well but this seems most natural.

B---Did you choose 9-27? It loses. The process is long but Black's men on 20 and 28 are a liability. Use your computer to work it out. We'll just note that to win, White must jump 10-17 first. "How high" and "which way" indeed!

This interesting study was provided to us by regular Toronto based contributors Lloyd and "Gosh Josh" Gordon.