Grotesque chess problems

Look at this position. Black still has all his pieces on the board, while White has just a single pawn, on its original square. So what is the task? “White to play and win” says the composer, one of the most imaginative in history. Born in 1860, Ottó Titusz Bláthy composed a large number of “Grotesques”, extremely unusual positions in which White must win against much larger black forces. These problems are generally intended to be humorous. We hope you enjoy our examples, which should also serve to remind you how you can move the pieces, play and analyse right there on our news page diagrams.