As it’s Christmas you’ll all have plenty of time to solve a problem.

It’s White to play and force mate in 3 moves against any black defence.

Many leading chess teachers now agree that solving problems and studies is one of the best ways to improve your calculation skills and boost your rating.

So as you’ve got nothing better to do this week, why not socially isolate and solve this problem? Its composer, Cecil Alfred Lucas Bull, apart from being one of the leading problemists of his day, had the unique distinction of being chess champion of both Twickenham and Durban.

I’ll be writing much more about him on British Chess News shortly.