Exeter Chess Club: Trawled from the 'Net

From info!dregis Fri Jan 12 12:35:26 GMT 1996
Article: 1555 of rec.games.chess.analysis
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess.analysis
Path: info!dregis
From: dregis@exeter.ac.uk (David Regis=)
Subject: The Sphinx problem
Message-ID: 
Summary: What goes first on four legs, then on two, then on three?
Organization: University of Exeter, UK.
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 1996 12:33:54 GMT
 
Help please!
 
Chandler's novels mention that Philip Marlowe once tried to find
alternative solutions to the famous Sphinx chess problem.  I have (a
version of?) this puzzle from the dust wrapper of a modern reprint of
Staunton's CHESSPLAYER'S HANDBOOK [Staunton (Bracken/Batsford), 1985],
given with caption below:
(wKg5,Qf4,Bb2,Pa2,h5; bKg8,Rf8,Pa3,b4,f5,g4,h7)
+--------+
|-+-+-rk+|
|+-+-+-+p|
|-+-+-+-+|
|+-+-+pKP|
|-p-+-Qp+|
|p-+-+-+-|
|PB-+-+-+|
|+-+-+-+-|
+--------+
 
"THE SPHYNX: White playing first mates in eleven moves. "
 
 
I showed this to Fritz who quickly came up with a mate in six:
 
1. Qc4+ Rf7 2. Bf6
 [2...h6+ 3. Kg6 g3 4. Qxf7#]
 [2...b3 3. Be7 Kg7 4. h6+ Kg8 5. Qc8+]
2... g3 3. Be7 Kg7 4. h6+ Kg8 5. Qc8+ Rf8 6. Qxf8# 1-0
 
What's going on?
 
Is the picture not giving the right problem?
If it is the right position what was the intended solution?
Is Fritz' solution a cook?
Is this all well-known and I've just caught up?
 
 
D
 
--
P.S. The riddle of the Sphinx was of course:
 
What goes first on four legs, then on two, then on three?
 
The answer is of course a chessplayer, who is born a crawling
infant, walks as a child, then learns to play chess and spends
the rest of their life resting on two elbows and their backside

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