I have a Helpmate in 5½ for you this week.

This might sound scary, but everyone should aim to do at least one scary thing every day. This is your scary thing for today.

For those of you not familiar with the genre, a helpmate is a puzzle in which White and Black work together to reach a position where White checkmates the black king. The convention in a helpmate is that normally Black starts, so if you’re solving a helpmate in 2 you’re looking for a BWBW sequence.

This is a helpmate in 5½ so you’re looking for a sequence of moves in which White starts and, with Black’s co-operation, delivers mate on the 6th move.

It was composed by Stephen Taylor and first published in The Problemist Supplement in January 2023.