well at least in conversation - no wonder
I had problems finding the diagram ! !
and even when I had the right book and
skimmed thru it - do you think I could find
it - no way; but at last I did.
Eric Schiller has a poorish reputation for chess
potboilers - the odd piece of poor quality here
and there, I even looked at one where I just
couldn't make sense of it - till I realized that a
certain Black Rook should have been white
But in his 'Encylopedia of Chess Wisdom' has
a whole section on 'Checkmating Patterns' - on
page 302 there appears the mate - published as a
study in 1512 along with a note that since Damiano
placed no white kin on the board "and this has prevented
this classic from entering many databases which will not
accept illegal positions!"
Epaulette; Greco's; Legall's ; Lolli's and many others
(some of which might be fictitious by name though
recognisable as poositions seen, to make a total of 29
checkmates -followed by 10 stalemate patterns.
[ps I picked the book up at Wiliams bookshop at Gosford.]
put one somewhere which I thought might might be useful
to my coaching class - ie now that you know White's plan
what if it is black to move first!
One thing to note is that some 9-year olds got the key quite
quickly - but lost a little heart when the solution was more
than a couple of moves long (with White to move = mate-in-5,
Black to moveand mate-in-10 - though the mate is 'saved' after only a couple.
And after a little prodding got it all (except for the final move ! ? )
