"My theory of a key-move was always to make it just the reverse of what a player in 999 cases out of 1000 would look for."

Morphy and 16 yr. old Sam Loyd met at the 1st American Chess Congress of 1857 (Morphy's ONLY tournament). Morphy gave Sam Loyd Queen Knight odds (and won) on Oct. 10, 1860 while they both worked for the Chess Monthly, however the score doesn't exist. They possibly played other games besides. Morphy was anything BUT an avid tournament player, believing that match play was the ONLY true test of skill and that tournaments left too much to chance.

Perhaps one of the most overused phrases among management folk is "(to) think outside the box".

I think the phrase itself has worked its way INTO the box: the hum-drum, uncreative pronouncements that we sometimes make without thinking much about them.

Animator Joseph Pelling has a bit of fun with this one -- two pseudo-visionary consultant-types trying to out-clever one another with this tired phrase. Fun viewing! (Best viewed on full screen.)

http://www.vimeo.com/5225011

Incidentally, I think there is general agreement that the phrase originated with the famous "nine dots" puzzle of 19th century puzzle maestro Sam Loyd.

The goal of the puzzle is to link all 9 dots using four straight lines or less, without lifting the pen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:N...

Of course, most people try this for awhile, come to believe it cannot be done, and then give up.

It CAN be done, IF and ONLY IF we are willing to wander outside the unreal boundaries of the box that the mind (typically) places around it:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...

All rather amusing....

Two boxes are locked and sealed tight. The only key to the first box is inside the second. The only key to the second box is inside the first.

But my answer is more straightforward. In fact, it's so straightforward that you can demonstrate it in your own home with no special preparation and without any special equipment. Here it is, in four easy steps.

1. Go into your bedroom.

2. Lock the door.

3. Put the key in your jewel box.

If you ignore counting the bodies, and instead count all of the half bodies inside the circle and half bodies outside of the circle, then look at which ones actually use the half bodies, and which of them have full and half heads, the answer becomes apparent.

There are 12 half bodies on the outside of the circle and 12 half bodies on the inside of the circle.

Now in the final shifted position (that shows 13 figures), in the SW corner one of the inside halves doesn't use one of the outside halves, and one of the outside halves doesn't use one of the inside halves. This frees up an extra inside and outside piece to come together and form a 13th person.

Now something else to notice:

When you shift the earth, the SW corner figure has two full heads, each lacking a half body without a head. If you look in the NE corner that figure actually loses half its head in the rotated position, and if you skip over the next one down, that figure only has half a head as well. There are only enough parts to form 12 full heads, and only enough parts for 12 half bodies without a head.

So in the position where you see 12, every figure is using a half body inside the circle and a half body outside of the circle, they also all have full heads.

click for larger view

"Solution: 1. Bf8!! (Hiding in ambush) Bxb2 (To prevent 2. Qa1#) 2. Bxh6#. Other alternatives also lose but the main line is the prettiest."

Saidy & Lessing, "The World of Chess." Random House, New York, 1974.

F. S. Bondarenko
"feenschach" 1960

click for larger view

S. Loyd
"New York Clipper"
June 14th 1856

click for larger view

#5

Loyd called this one <"The Pilot" > - He expressed more than once the opinion that long problems consisting in a sequence of checks and forced answers were not his artistic ideal - Here we have at least a quiet key.

S. Loyd
"Cleveland Voice"
July 1st, 1877

click for larger view

Change the Knights from the King's to the Queen's side of the board, without moving backwards or ever getting two Knights on the same file.

(But this one, titled <"Crossing the Danube"> was already from a period where he was more occupied with his puzzle-maker career than with Chess...)

<phony benoni> Yes, the problem showed in GameKnot seems to be a version of that Bondarenko #21. I'm reasonably sure that <"Kegelschach"> provides an answer to this historical question