The Jack in the bos theme

[Edgar C. Atkinson]

On Dec. 7, 2019 Bob Newell's The Checker Maven celebrated its fifteenth anniversary with a fine problem by long time contributer, Bria Hinkle, which employed what I call the Jack in the box theme. Here is how this theme came about.
Some years ago Bill Salot and I were discussing checker terms when I came across this position in Richard Pask's outstanding book, Starting Out in Checkers.
Black- 11 12 King- 10
White- 19 20 King- 3.
White to play and draw.
3-8 11-15 19-16 12-19 8-11 15-18 11-15 Draw.
I asked Bill if the final position could be called a breeches or a pocket, since it has the characteristics of both. Bill suggested that it could be called a pocket breeches and sent this position,
Black- 10 11 18 19.
White- King- 15
and called it a double pocket breeches.
At first I took this to be a joke, but then asked myself if it could come up in play. With this thought in mind I came up with
Black- 4 10 18 19.
White- 8 King- 11
White to move.
Play 11-15 4-11 and there you have it.
No problem composer could resist the opportunity to make a problem out of the idea. Since I am no problem composer, that is just what came about. This is the first problem on the theme.
Black- 2 4 10 18 King- 19.
White- 8 Kings- 5 11.
White to play and win.
11-15 4-11 15-6 2-9 5-7.
Not much of a problem, but it was a start. Every journey begins with the first step.
The next step was this position.
Black- 1 2 4 18 King- 28.
White- 8 13 24 Kings- 5 11.
White to play and win.
13-9 28-19 9-6 1-10 11-15 4-11 15-6.
Since the first two moves of the solution are out of the ordinary, this seems to be a presentable problem.
Several other compositions followed, including this one.
Black- 5 16 Kings- 15 29 31.
White- 9 24 30 Kings- 14 28.
White to play and win.
24-19 16-23 30-25 29-22 14-18 5-14 18-27
'Jack' jumps out of the box and White wins.
This is the problem that inspired Brian Hinkle to compose his aformentioned masterpiece for The fifteenth anniversary of The Checker Maven.
Another example of the theme, alkng with the one holds rwo theme, appeared in the Jan. 11, 2020 edition of The Checker Maven, incidentally the 127th anniversary of the man who taught me to play checkers, my father.

[George Hay]

THE JACK IN THE BOX THEME by Edgar C. Atkinson:

WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN




WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN




Hi Ed, your post is a virtual clinic on how to make checkers problems! I could not resist making diagrams of the above problems. I like the pocket theme, and I love the Jack in the Box theme!

--George Hay

[Edgar C. Atkinson]

Hi George, Thank you for posting the beautiful diagrams and for the kind words. Readers should note that the diagrams refer to the last two positions sent. Treatment of another theme is anticipated when I can think up a suitable name for it.

[Bill Salot]

I believe the first published problem featuring the "Jack in the Box" theme was Ed Atkinson's composition called "Code Breaker", which tied for second in Unofficial World Championship Checker Problem Composing Contest #16 in April 2014.

The setting was as follows:
Red 2, 3, 12, 13, 20, 22, 26, K27
White 10, 16, 24, 25, K8, K18, K19
White to Play and Win
8 11*, 22-29. 10 7*A, 3-10, 18 23*, 27-18, 11 8*, 20-27, 19 23*, 12-19. 23 7*, WW
A - Not 18 23, 27-18, 10 7. 20-27*, 19 23, 12-19*, RW

I predict the "Jack in the Box" theme will be Ed's first entry in his first book, which will be entitled "Unfamiliar Themes".

[George Hay]

CODE BREAKER by Edgar C. Atkinson:



WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN

This is a link to the animated diagram from the archives:

http://www.usacheckers.com/problems/ani ... BLEM_ID=76

Of course, Code Breaker is best studied over coffee and caramel rolls at the Beacon Cafe:

http://www.bobnewell.net/nucleus/checke ... temid=1252

Sal will give you fifteen minutes to solve it.

--George Hay