4/4/2020 – Are you 27 years old or younger? Then you can take part in a competiton run by "Schwalbe", the German society for problem chess – on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the "German Chess Youth". You get ten (actually very delightful) problems to solve. You mail your answers to the supervisor of the competition, and can win one of many prizes. Comments are welcome. In any case the problems are lots of fun.

3/7/2020 – Welcome to Augsburg, the heart of Bavaria and one of Germany’s oldest cities. Words like cute and cosy come to mind, but for its modest size one could be quite amazed at the number of rush hour commuters: it is a town that has no inferiority complex towards its bigger brothers, the nearby Munich and capital Berlin. CARL STRUGNELL once again enjoyed a post-Christmas visit to Bavaria. PLUS try your combinative skills in Find the Winning Moves.

1/12/2020 – Last year we rivived our twenty-year tradition of giving you unusual puzzles for the Christmas holidays — puzzles that cannot be easily solved with a computer (the point of this endeavour), tasks which require you to think all by yourself. Sadly the greatest problematist, Pál Benkö, who faithfully contributed to this endeavour, could only make one contribution, for Christmas day, before passing (at 91 last August). We hope you enjoyed the puzzles and were able to solve some yourself.

1/11/2020 – Chess problems have been around for over a thousand years. In the 21st century, however, composing original chess problems is no longer something that only humans can do autonomously. In this article, AZLAN IQBAL shares what the general global chess community, not just master players and composers, apparently find appealing when it comes to chess problems. Do you agree?

8/30/2019 – It was with great sorrow that we learned, last Monday, of the passing of grandmaster Pal Benko, a world class player who earned an additional ticket to immortality with his problems and endgame studies. Recently we had shown you one of his most elegant chess problems, composed when he was just fifteen. It was a problem that still occupied the nonagenarian. In one line it has a dual, and at Pal's behest we challenged our readers to find a modification to cure that. A large number tried. Today we announce the winner of the competition.

7/15/2019 – He was a world-class grandmaster, twice World Champion candidate, friend of Bobby Fischer (who enabled Fischer's participation in the 1972 WCh match), inventor of the eponymous Benko Gambit and the 1.g3 Benko Opening (which he used to beat Fischer and Tal). But he is probably best known as an author and composer of endgame studies and chess problems. He is also a loyal friend who has provided us with countless articles over the last ten years. We offer our heartfelt wishes for his 91st birthday today. Like to join in?

7/8/2019 – This is one of the most elegant chess problems we have ever seen. It was composed by the master, Pal Benko when he was just fifteen. Five pieces, four on their original squares, and the task is to force mate in three moves. That is quite difficult: Bobby Fischer failed to find the solution in half an hour. Can you do better – and can you find a correction for the minor dual that was found in the problem? You can win a nice prize if you do.

4/3/2019 – Two weeks ago our columnist offered a tribute to Spanish chess composer, Valentin Marin y Llovet (1872-1936) and followed it up with three problems for solving. At first sight each problem seemed to set an impossible task. However, if you listen to the pieces you can find the solution. Professor Nagesh Havanur helps you to do this.

2/7/2019 – Our Christmas Day problem article really made the rounds. First eminent mathematician and problemist Noam Elkies sent rapid feedback, and then one of truly great problem composers (and GM, and World Championship candidate) sent us his comments. It is none other then Pal Benko who helped convert Frederic Friedel's amateur composition into an "Excelsior", and tried himself to construct a full Excelsior (where the pawn starts with a single step). It's a lesson in problem composition.

1/25/2019 – It's a new discovery — a collection of the most interesting chess problems and puzzles, from the tenth century until today. The unique thing is that each puzzle has a little story attached to it, telling you something about the circumstances of its composition and its place in the history of chess problems. We bring you a small sample from the book "Chess Compositions". Try working out the positions before you peek at the solutions.

1/2/2019 – On Christmas day we published an article by Frederic Friedel, describing the process of composing a chess problem. It was based on his own effort to generate a proper helpmate back in 2002. A number of readers followed his invitation and send in amateur compositions themselves. We also received feedback from a remarkable personality: Noam Elkies is a professor of mathematics, a musician and music composer, chess master and problemist. He explained how to use an online problem database to assist in such tasks. We share his instructions with our readers.

12/1/2018 – Remember our article on the Babson task? Tim Krabbé told us the tragic story of how a fanatical problem composer failed, after 22 years of exhausting labour, to find a position that required quadruple echo promotion — only to see a 26-year-old soccer trainer succeed with multiple examples. Today there are 20 known examples, but none are free of duals. A very erudite 99-page paper by Peter Hoffmann describes the current state of affairs, and problemist Werner Keym is offering substantial cash prizes for the perfect Babson.