Sam Loyd

One of Loyd's notable puzzles was the "Trick Donkeys". It was based on a similar puzzle involving dogs published in 1857. In the problem, the solver must cut the drawing along the dotted lines and rearrange the three pieces so that the riders appear to be riding the donkeys.

This problem was originally published in 1859. The story involves an incident during the siege of Charles XII of Sweden by the Turks at Bender in 1713. "Charles beguiled this period by means of drills and chess, and used frequently to play with his minister, Christian Albert Grosthusen, some of the contests being mentioned by Voltaire. One day while so engaged, the game had advanced to this stage, and Charles (White) had just announced mate in three."

Loyd bet a friend that he could not pick a piece that didn't give mate in the main line, and when it was published in 1861 it was with the stipulation that white mates with "the least likely piece or pawn".

Loyd is widely acknowledged as one of America's great puzzle-writers and popularizers, often mentioned as the greatest. Martin Gardner featured Loyd in his August 1957 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American and called him "America's greatest puzzler". In 1898 The Strand dubbed him "the prince of puzzlers". As a chess problemist, his composing style is distinguished by wit and humour.

In 1900, Friedrich Amelung pointed out that in the original position, if the first bullet had struck the rook instead of the knight, Charles would still have a mate in six.

Loyd claimed from 1891 until his death in 1911 that he invented the 15 puzzle, for example writing in the Cyclopedia of Puzzles (published 1914), p. 235: "The older inhabitants of Puzzleland will remember how in the early seventies I drove the entire world crazy over a little box of movable pieces which became known as the '14–15 Puzzle'." This is false as Loyd had nothing to do with the invention or popularity of the puzzle, and the craze was in the early 1880s, not the early 1870s. The craze had ended by July 1880 and Loyd's first article on the subject was not published until 1896. Loyd first claimed in 1891 that he had invented the puzzle, and continued to do so until his death. The actual inventor was Noyes Chapman, who applied for a patent in March 1880.

In 2003, ChessBase posted a fifth variation, attributed to Brian Stewart. After the first bullet took out the knight, if the second had removed the g-pawn rather than the h-pawn, Charles would be able to mate in ten.

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