Well, it's been almost a year and a half since JerboaKolinowski posted his writeup here, and promised to add the solution to the two compositions he included. I nagged him every few months, and he kept promising he'd do it any day now, and now he's possibly fled the site (though bones tells me he always comes back), so it's up to me.

For reference, here are the compositions. In each, White is to play and checkmate Black on the second move. White's pieces are denoted by upper-case letters and Black's by lower-case. White is playing from the bottom of the diagram upward, and Black from the top down.

    -------------------------------           -------------------------------
 8 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |       8 |   |   |   | B | k |   |   | r | 
    -------------------------------           -------------------------------
 7 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |       7 |   | N |   |   |   |   | p | r | 
    -------------------------------           -------------------------------
 6 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |       6 |   |   | n | Q |   |   | P | p |
    -------------------------------           -------------------------------
 5 |   |   | B |   | Q | K |   |   |       5 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   
    -------------------------------           -------------------------------
 4 |   |   |   |   | N |   |   |   |       4 |   |   |   | n |   |   |   |   |   
    -------------------------------           -------------------------------
 3 |   |   | R |   |   |   | R |   |       3 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   
    -------------------------------           -------------------------------
 2 |   |   |   | p | k | p |   |   |       2 |   |   |   |   |   |   | K |   |   
    -------------------------------           -------------------------------
 1 |   | N |   |   | b |   |   |   |       1 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   
    -------------------------------           -------------------------------
     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h             a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

Meredith #1

The thing that would strike most people, on first glance at the composition on the left, is poor Black!. He certainly looks overwhelmed, on a material basis. But, as is always the case in these puzzles, he's got an out for almost every move that White makes. His few pieces are so constrained, his only choices are to move his King to the first rank or to promote a pawn (possibly by capturing, if White moves a rook to the first on his first move).

I first insisted to Jerboa that this had no solution, but he told me it depended on a rule (that I haven't been able to find with a few minutes of googling) that a promoted pawn must become a queen and not another piece. Given that rule, a move that hadn't worked then became the solution (given below).

Meredith #2

This is one of my favorite compositions ever, because even after giving up and being told White's move, many people will insist that it doesn't work. They'll respond "But Black can …". Here's a hint as to what I'm talking about: Look at Black's rooks.



















Notice the rook on h7? How could it have gotten there? That's right! The rook on h8 cannot have been there since the beginning of the game, hence Black is unable to castle. Given that, try again. Solution below.





















The Solutions

I don't know if people would prefer that I just list the key move, or give some commentary on Black's responses. For now, I'll just give the key, and add more on demand. (And I really will!)

  • 1. Qe8
  • 1. Qc7