Raymond Smullyan (1919–2017)

This little book has a lot going on in it! It presents three sets of chess problems, but they are not of the ordinary sort. Rather than the usual prospective puzzle that chess problems offer (e.g. "White to mate in 2" on the basis of a diagram shown), "retrograde analysis" problems require a deduction of the prior states of the game in order to understand its current situation. Here is a diagram. "Is it possible for Black to castle?" "Is the White Queen a promoted piece?"

The problems show more themselves are framed by a narrative presentation in the voice of Dr. John H. Watson, who is tutored by Sherlock Holmes in the niceties of retrograde analysis through a series of exercises. In this first section, the problems posed flow directly into their solutions in the course of conversation among the characters. In the second section, the problems arise in the course of an adventure where Holmes and Watson go to the East Indies to help their friend Captain Marston recover a lost family treasure. The answers for these puzzles are in the back of the book. A third and final set of problems has for its merest window-dressing the notion that they were composed by Holmes' foe Professor Moriarty.

In this book, the term "monochromatic chess game" is used to mean a game in which all pieces are restricted to move only to squares of the color on which they originate (120). That was momentarily confusing to me, since I am a regular player of "monochrome chess," a variant in which all thirty-two chessmen can be the same color, because color does not determine ownership. But "monochromatic" chess in the sense used here does not seem to be original with author Raymond Smullyan, and it does give rise to some interesting problems.

The puzzles in the book are often very challenging, and I was able to solve only a small minority without help. The contextual storytelling kept the book entertaining so that I didn't get too discouraged in the process. I enjoyed it, and I am curious about Smullyan's sequel Chess Mysteries of the Arabian Knights. show less

An interesting, jumbled-up collection of essays, dialogs, aphorisms, and puzzles. It approaches all sorts of philosophical questions from all different directions, so in the end you may be left scratching your head, wondering just what it is you've been reading this whole time. In that, it's a bit like how people often describe the experience of reading Hofstasdter's 'Gödel, Escher, Bach'. While this isn't nearly as ambitious or virtuousic as that, it's a fun book written in a likable, show more approachable voice. I'll definitely check out Smullyan's other works. show less

Warm, friendly book free from the pretention or mystical foggy-headedness typical to books about eastern philosophy. It does not try to impress with insight, but entertain and illuminate.

A delightful book of logical puzzles. And you get into some real depth by the time you reach Transylvania. I bought it for the boys so they could relive my childhood, but good for adults as well.