Al-Suli's Diamond
al-Suli created a shatranj problem called "al-Suli's Diamond" that went unsolved for over a thousand years.[1] As this is a shatranj, the "queen" (counsellor) is a very weak piece, able to move only a single square diagonally. It is also possible to win in shatranj by capturing all pieces except the king.
“ | This ancient position is so difficult that there is no one in the world who would be able to solve it, except those I have taught to do so. I doubt whether anyone did this before me. This was said by al-Suli. | ” |
David Hooper and Ken Whyld studied this problem in the mid-1980s but were unable to crack it. It was finally solved by Russian Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh.[2][3] The solution given is 1. Kb4 in Hans Ree's "The Human Comedy of Chess".
Thanks, Ayoubi-W.
As-Suli was a remarkable man. Donner admired him because of his tall stories about his travels and the opponents he had beaten, "a falsifier and a plagiarizer, in short — the first chess journalist."