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.

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.

Self-mate in 28, with cross-checks

In a "self-mate", white plays first, but he is trying to force black to checkmate him, not to give mate.

Therefore, although White may mate in one by d8=Q, he is not interested. He goes about a particular sequence of moves, forcing Black to make "only" moves, as one rook climbs down the ladder, giving check and covering check continuously. It dies on g2, Black making tempo moves with h-pawns. The other White Rook plays up the same ladder, giving check and covering check, sacrificing itself symmetrically at b7, even as an under-promotion gives White tempo moves to allows Black to mate.

Count the number of checks.

Themes with multiple cross-checks are called Brede checks, a term introduced by Alain C. White of an Ellerman three-mover in a Good Companion folder.