Helpmates

Chess, to state the obvious, is different from painting, or dance, or poetry. There is artistry in it, and yet the game stands apart. When we admire a sequence of moves, they only make sense viewed through the filter of an imagined adversarial contest. Sacrifices and combinations sparkle according to the obstacles that are overcome. The finest chess compositions display dazzling ideas from both sides before the denouement.

And yet there is a celebrated genre of chess problem which dispenses with that premise. I’m thinking of the helpmate, in which both sides conspire to achieve mate on the board as quickly as possible. This is chess as choreography. Freed from the assumption that moves must be rational, the simple gliding of pieces around the board turns out to be full of aesthetic life.

Take the position in the left diagram, composed by Pal Benko (Berliner Morgenpost, 1970). The stipulation is ‘Helpmate in three’ and by convention, Black moves first, so that White is the one who will deliver mate.