Check out Atomic Chess, our featured variant for November, 2024.

Chess puzzle from Maura

In his book EVOLUCION DEL AJEDREZ, Gabriel Vincente Maura describes many chess variants, including his own invention Modern Chess. This variant on a nine by nine board features a minister, which is a piece that has the combined moves of bishop and knight.

Also, Maura gives four chess puzzles with a minister. Below, you find a simple one.

qrr
R
Rpk
KNpp
nPN
nMinister
b

B

White to mate in one move.

Solution

Several people emailed me the solution. It is not too hard, and I think no separate webpage is needed. If you really cannot solve it, email me.
If you came to this webpage looking for Ministers Chess(tm), you can instead follow this link leading to the home page of this commercial chess variant.
WWW page created by Hans Bodlaender.
WWW page created: March 9, 1998. Last modified: November 28, 2000.