I usually say that chess was invented in one week in the autumn of 570 A.D. somewhere in the north-eastern part of India, by a single person. I do this mainly to provoke chess historians who search for ancient predecessors of the game, in China and in Egypt. The only real precursor, I believe, was the 64-square chequered board.

Chess moved from India to Arabia, and when the Arabs stormed Europe in the 9th century they brought the game with them. And introduced the first “mansuba”, which consisted of composed middle or endgame positions with well-defined tasks, e.g. white to play and win. Which is the subject of today's challenge.

Here's an ancient mansuba that was composed more than a thousand years ago by a certain al-Adli. Originally it was Black to move and win, but we have switched it to the more modern form by reflecting the position. And here is your first challenge:

You can see that this is a fairly hopeless position, with Black threatening immediate mate by Ra1 or Reb2. White must not just defend, but actually win the game. Give yourself two minutes just looking at the diagram, and then execute the mate on the board. The diagram will defend.

In the Fireside Book by F. Reinfeld and I. Chernev write: Do you believe in reincarnation of chess ideas? The diagram shows a position which occurred in a game played in 1945 between Jorgensen and Sorensen. This identical position is described by al-Adli in an Arabian manuscript dating back to the ninth century!" Full details of this remarkable claim is to be found in chess historian Edward Winter's article Chess Reincarnation.

Once again, take a couple of minutes to just study the above position before moving the pieces and overcoming the diagram's defence. The story attached to the problem was that a chess-addicted prince, Murwardi, had wagered and lost his entire fortune in an intense chess session. In his desperation he offered his beautiful wife Dilaram as stake, and was losing the game they were playing for her. In the above position, his wife called out to him: "Oh Prince, sacrifice your rooks and not your wife."

Incidentally, the original problem had an "Alfil" on h3 – a bishop which at the time could only move two squares diagonally and jump over pieces (e.g. the knight on g4). We replaced it with a knight, which allow for the same solution.

And here is a Lucena that showed a unique mate for the first time:

I urge you to solve these historical puzzles – assuming you do not know them already – yourself. The solutions are given below.

al-Adli: 1.Nh5+ Rxh5 2.Rxg6+ Kxg6 3.Re6#

as-Suli: 1.Rh8+ Kxh8 2.Ng5+ Kg8 3.Rh8+ Kxh8 4.g7+ Kg8 5.Nh6#

Lucena: 1.Qe6+ Kh8 2.Nf7+ Kg8 3.Nh6+ (3.Nd8+ Kh8 4.Qe8+ Qf8 5.Qxf8#) 3...Kh8 4.Qg8+ Rxg8 5.Nf7# *

Highlight the lines above to view the solution. Did you find them all?