It’s always good to be able to celebrate a 100th birthday, and this month sees the centenary of The Problemist Magazine, which you can find online here.

Here’s the first problem from the first issue. BG Laws was one of the leading British problemists of his day.

It’s a mate in 3: White has to force mate in three moves against any Black defence.

For those of you who aren’t used to solving this type of problem I’ll provide some hints below

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

White’s first move creates a threat which can be met in two ways. In one variation the piece making the key move returns to its starting square to deliver mate. In all these problems, the solution is a move which looks crazy at first sight rather than an obvious check.