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A Grimshaw is a device found in chess problems in which two pieces arriving on a particular square mutually interfere with each other. It is named after the 19th-century problem composer Walter Grimshaw. The Grimshaw is one of the most common devices found in directmates.
The theme can be understood by reference to the displayed example by A. G. Corrias (published in Good Companion, 1917).
The problem is a mate in two (White must move first and checkmate Black in two moves against any defense). The key is 1.Qb1, which threatens 2.Qb7#. Black has three ways to defend against this.
It is the other two black defenses, however, which show the Grimshaw theme.
It is this mutual interference between two black pieces on the one square (in this case, a rook and a bishop on b2) that constitutes a Grimshaw.
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The key in the puzzle on the right is 1. Qd2. This move has no threat, but it leaves black in zugzwang: Black must either move one of his bishops or rooks, or move a pawn. However, any bishop or rook move must unguard one of the squares of d5, d6, d7 or d8, allowing White to mate on d5, d6 or d7 with the queen, and d8 with the knight. The lines are:
The pieces involved in Grimshaws are usually rook and bishop, as in the previous example, although Grimshaws involving pawns are also seen, as in this mate in two example by Frank Janet (published in the St.Louis Globe Democrat, 1916):
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The key is 1.Qd7, threatening 2.Qf5#. As in the previous example, Black can defend by cutting White's queen off from its intended destination square, but two of these defences have fatal flaws in that they interfere with other pieces: 1...Be6 interferes with the pawn on e7, allowing 2.Qxc7# (2...e5 would be possible were the bishop not on e6) and 1...e6 interferes with the bishop, allowing 2.Qxa4# (2...Bc4 would be possible were the pawn not on e6). It is this mutual interference between bishop and pawn on e6 which constitutes the pawn Grimshaw. There are several other non-thematic black defences in this problem — see below for them all.
Sometimes, multiple Grimshaws can be combined in one problem. Here are two examples by Lev Ilych Loshinsky each with three Grimshaws.
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This was first published in L'Italia Scacchistica, 1930. It is a mate in two. The key is 1.Rb1, with the threat 2.d4#. Each of Black's defences produces a Grimshaw interference which stops him from capturing White's mating piece. Black's defences, with White's replies, are:
There is one other black defence: 1...Rd6 leading to the simple recapture 2.Bxd6# (this is essentially the same mate as that which follows 1...Be6).
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This second Loshinsky example, also a mate in two, is from Tijdschrift v.d. Nederlandse Schaakbond, 1930, and is one of the most famous of all chess problems. It is a complete block (if White could pass his first move, then he could reply to every black move with a mate), and White's key, 1.Bb3, holds this block, making no threat, but putting Black in zugzwang. Black has six defences leading to three Grimshaws, one of them a pawn Grimshaw:
After other black moves, White can play one of the above moves to mate; the three exceptions are 1...f5, taking away that square from the king and allowed 2.Qd6# and two recaptures: 1...Rxc7 2.Nxc7# and 1...Bxd4 2.Nxd4#.
A close relative of the Grimshaw is the Novotny, which is essentially a Grimshaw brought about by a white sacrifice on a square where it can be captured by two different black pieces – whichever black piece captures the white piece, it interferes with the other.
A Babson task is a directmate chess problem with the following properties:
The Novotny is a device found in chess problems named after a problem from 1854 by Antonín Novotný, though the first example was composed by Henry Turton in 1851. A piece is sacrificed on a square where it could be taken by two different opposing pieces, but whichever makes the capture, it interferes with the other. It is essentially a Grimshaw brought about by a sacrifice on the critical square.
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