Helpmate in 3 by G Paros 1933 Il Problema

Reproduced from the early collection of helpmates "Conspiracy" by Alain White, one of his Christmas series books.

This three-move helpmate shows great strategy culminating in a model mate. Every move is thematic. The Black queen prepares to flight-block her King, and has to take the scenic route e2, g4. There is a departure effect right on move 1, as The White King arrives on d5, a square formerly in check. Note moreover that the White knight is now pinned. On the next black move, Black arrives on g4. It is now time for the White king to perform a anticipatory unpin of the white knight. He goes to Kc4. Why does the white king not go to e6, the other available square? Because that is reserved for the mating piece. On Black's last move, the Black King arrives on f4 for his model mate. This horizontally unpins the White Knight, a nice effect. Se6 is a beautiful model mate. The whole thing works like a Swiss watch. The order of the moves is forced, and there is harmonious interaction between the white and black moves, and nice economy.

Subtle timing and strategy in long helpmate

Chris J Feather, a master of the helpmate, and a vocal critic of weak compositions, has nothing but praise for the strategy in this long helpmate by Babesi composed in 1955. "The best face of the long helpmate.", he writes in Black to Play - a monograph on helpmates, "Some subtle timing and a more dynamic use of the closed corner than in most such problems. The word 'miracle' used by one solver is hardly out of place. Goodness knows how many hours the genial and charming composer spent on this, but Alybadix" (a computer program to check soundness of fairy compositions) " needed 9 hours, 38 minutes, 3 seconds (with a 80486/33 processor).

Indeed, note how the Black king munches a White pawn creating tempi for the white pawn behind it, as it goes to b4, note how the white knight takes on g4 to create a spare move for white, as black's promoted rook is wheeled into place, and note the precise clockwork timing of everything, and I have passed over mentioning the first bishop underpromotion.

Helpmate in 18, White king check avoidance

Another helpmate for fun. Before the dark-square bishop can sacrifice itself at c7, W's king needs to be sheltered from check by the black rook. This means the light-square bishop has to come over to f1.

The whole timing and strategy, as Black's king takes just the pawns on b5 and b6 and gets checkmated on a4, by the newly promoted queen coming from c8 to a6, has strategic appeal that is classic helpmate more-mover.

Note the elegant timing of the released black pawn on b7, creating the self-block on b4 in the nick of time.

This was part of a nice article from Ljubomir Ugren (Zagreb) and Marko Klasinc -Ljubljana entitled "Rekordi (tasks) Pomocnog mata" in the April 1973 issue of Problem.

Helpmate in 28

This one is for sheer fun, possibly the longest helpmate ever devised.

Newcomers, please recall that in helpmates, Black moves first and is cooperating in finding a single variation in which white may deliver checkmate in the stipulated number of moves. However, neither side may move into check, (or move a pinned piece leaving their king in check, or otherwise make a illegal move). In the final checkmate position, standard rules apply.

Note: it is a bit unusual for Black king to be in check in a position, but it is Black to play first, and neither side may make a illegal move, so the first Black move is forced. The rest is forced by the logic that Black has to navigate the minefield of white pawn controlled squares, while creating a passer to promote to allow White to promote. All of this takes 28 dance steps.

Pal Benko, twin problem, helpmate in 7

Sometimes a helpmate problem, especially in a longer move setting, need not be a serious affair. There is a pretty picture in this helpmate which is a twin (a nearly identical position), the stipulation being, to remove the bishop at h4 in the last diagram. Here, also, we have a pawn promoting all the way from second rank, under-promoting, else the black king scampering to h1 would be in check. The long journey undertaken by a promoting pawn in chess problems is called Excelsior.

Pal Benko, helpmate composer

Multi-time world champion Candidate, Pal Benko, not only composed studies, but also more-movers and problems in chess helpmates. From his book with Silman, the wonderful "My life, games and compositions" comes the first of two twins. Black moving first is to help White to mate him. See the dance of the under-prmoted black rook as it races to strangle his own monarch.

A twin is a second problem with the same stipulation but a slight change in one of the pieces. Here, remove the h4 bishop from the board, and again it is a helpmate in 7 with a different solution