I'll bet this resides in someone else's posting or blog, but it's worth resurfacing.

Loyd's famous two-mover was dubbed "organ pipes" by a German chess critic because of the black arrangement of rooks and bishops.

A special postscript is a second problem with a double organ pipes by white and black, courtesy of Pal Benko. (Apparently Comins Mansfield created a similar problem.)

also laverner 1889. as it appears on chessmaster 10.

i think the first one by nimzovich was a daily puzzle. havent seen the benko one, thanks for sharing. the one pedro posted is also pretty famous.

"organ pipes". interesting.

Thanks for the add-on, PedroV100!

Here is the Mansfield problem...

And an organ pipes by Thomas Taverner...

and Jan Hartong...

A short search shows imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as Loyd's organ pipes, as the pattern has been utilized in two-move problems not only by Benko, Laverner, and Hartong, but also Reeves, Powell, Guidelli, Uppstrom, Savournin, Wurzburg, Pauly, Petrovic, Sydenham, Callander, Howard, White, Herland, van Dijk, Borkowski, Rukhlis, Lipton, Froberg, Zappas, Burgess, Nanning, Quack, plus others in three move problems, helpmates, and other diversions.

Whew!

woah...that's a lot of people with nothing to do on sunday afternoons :)

just curious, when were these puzzles created?

Good old Loyd started the ball rollingin 1859, and the next 100+ problems that I could quickly locate stretched from the late 1800s through the the 20th century, tailing off to 2002...

When I started searching after PedroV100's note, I could scarcely believe what I found.

For those who can't get enough of this stuff, head off to the "Problem Data Base"...www.softdecc.com/pdb/index.pdb

forgive me for being stupid but i really dont understand the second puzzle. how does moving the king be of any advantage. please explain

Not a bad question at all...

In both problems, the first move by whitemove puts black in zugzwang, where any move he/she makes actually contributes to the mate.

For instance: 1...Rd7 blocks the bishop on c8, so, 2.Nf5, etc.

Every move by black has a response that ends in mate by white.

The key move first move by white in the second is a quite subtle one, as it has no direct threat, but this can be said about the first problem, too.

what is wrong with b3 clear the path for the bishop, then mate i think

There is a mate by white in the second problem after black's 1...b3.

i see now. thanks for that nimzovich. it takes a really good player to notice something like that

It takes an amazing player to compose these problems!

I think they are valuable to help train us to look for the "impossible" or to just amuse some of us.

I'm pleased you enjoy the works of these composers as I have.

I thought it was from an actual game. Can you check out my game i played today nimzovich. Its on 'my proud moment' post. Not many people have commented and I am annoyed because I think I played really well because it was a forced mate of about five moves.

? why c5

Heh, these puzzles are pretty awesome...