George Duke wrote on Wed, Mar 1, 2017 08:47 PM UTC:
White to Mate in 4. Since Black Queen is on white square, the Black Queen and King have already moved, and it means Black Pawns also have moved. So the present position started from the other side of the board! The board is actually left to right h to a, and up to down 1 to 8. (Dudeney and later Martin Gardner do this problem without the algebraic labelling.) Then White's Mate starts with 1 Nb8-d7. If 1 ...g1-h3, the mate is in two more moves. If 1 ...g1-f3, the mate is in three more moves. In the latter delay of the mate by one move, 2 N d7-c5 N f3-e5 3 Qxe5 4 N c5-d3 #.
White to Mate in 4. Since Black Queen is on white square, the Black Queen and King have already moved, and it means Black Pawns also have moved. So the present position started from the other side of the board! The board is actually left to right h to a, and up to down 1 to 8. (Dudeney and later Martin Gardner do this problem without the algebraic labelling.) Then White's Mate starts with 1 Nb8-d7. If 1 ...g1-h3, the mate is in two more moves. If 1 ...g1-f3, the mate is in three more moves. In the latter delay of the mate by one move, 2 N d7-c5 N f3-e5 3 Qxe5 4 N c5-d3 #.