There was a bank row?

Recently I had one of my favourite guests over. Leon Mendonca (pronounced Men-don-SA, incidentally) and his father Lyndon stayed with us for a week, and we had such a great time – playing Wordle, Geoguessr, with the kid joining basketball matches at the local school. During such visits we have long and interesting non-chess conversations, and Leon, like many other super-talents, has been confronted with a large number of my logical pranks. But this time I had a different kind of puzzle for him.

Leon knows that I spent part of my early childhood in a hill station resort in Lonavala, India (my German father had set up a herpetological research laboratory in the jungles surrounding the town). Many British families lived in the villas in Lonavala, and we had friends close by – the family O'Connell.

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Here's the puzzle I gave Leon and his father.

My English aunt Rosie O'Connell, living in the villa in Lonavala, often used to say "There was a bank row". To whom and why?

Leon and Lyndon could not work it out, and after a few days gave up. So I told them the solution, and had the boy rolling on the floor in laughter. After that, I said "There was a bank row" a number of times to him, and he complied! That's a hint.

Naturally I gave the problem to my usual customers, 2600+ and stronger super-talents. One was Gukesh, who to my delight has now, at the age of 17, climbed into the world's top ten bracket. He could not solve it, so I instructed Leon to give him the puzzle again while they were playing in the Turkish League. And he could give him the solution – under one condition: he must film Gukesh's reaction. With a little help, Gukesh actually solved the puzzle in their hotel room. The front page thumbnail is from Leon's video of him doing so.

Okay, what is the solution already? Well, I'm not going to tell you now. I will do it in a few days. Mind you, the vast majority of our readers doesn't have the slightest chance to work it out! There is, however, one group of readers that could, and they will probably react the same way Leon and Gukesh did.

I am switching comments on – but please do not reveal the solution, if you know it, to other readers. I will do that with a wonderful 2700+ video very soon.

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