Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, alias Lewis Carroll (27-01-1832 - 14-01-1898)
British mathematician, writer, chessplayer and composer
Many things could be said about
Lewis Carroll, but here we focus on chess problems. Lewis Carroll's chess problem published in "Through the Looking Glass" is the following:
Carroll, Lewis
Through The Looking Glass, 1871
1.Sg3+! Kd3(d4) 2.Qc3# (short mate)
1....Ke5 2.Qc5+ Ke6 3.Qd6#
In fact, the stipulation is wrong. As the source says it should be "
White Pawn to play and win in eleven moves." And as the printed solution indicates, the rules of chess are not very strictly adhered to...
Show the Solution intended by Lewis Caroll1. Alice meets R.Q. R.Q. to K.R's 4th
2. Alice through Q's 3d (by railway) to Q's 4th
Tweedledum and Tweedledee W.Q. to Q.B's 4th (after shawl)
3 Alice meets W.Q. (with shawl) W.Q. to Q. B's 5th (becomes sheep)
4 Alice to Q's 5th (shop, river, shop) W.Q. to K. B's 8th (leaves egg on shelf)
5 Alice to Q's 6th (Humpty Dumpty) W.Q. to Q.B's 8th (flying from R. Kt.)
6 Alice to Q's 7th (forest) W. Kt. takes R. Kt. R. Kt. to K's 2nd (ch.)
7 W. Kt. takes R. Kt. W. Kt. to K. B's 5th
8 Alice to Q's 8th (coronation) R. Q. to K's sq. (examination)
9 Alice becomes Queen Queens castle
10 Alice castles (feast) W.Q. to Q. R's 6th (soup)
11 Alice takes R. Q. & wins
The solution in animated gif can be seen
on this website:
Some explanations about this strange series of moves can be found
here and Christophe Leroy proposes a decryption of the game
in English and
in French.
