Samuel Loyd was one of the greatest creative geniuses of nineteenth century puzzles, both on and off of the chess board.
Born on January 30th of 1841, Samuel (Sam) Loyd was a contemporary of Paul Morphy (1837-1884). In fact, Loyd moved from Philadelphia to New York City which means he was occupying the same space as Paul Morphy for much of 1857. They met for the first time that year at the American Chess Congress. There Sam took note of Morphy’s brilliance at the chessboard while Morphy was impressed by Loyd’s creative chess compositions. Though not as strong of a player as Morphy, Sam Loyd established himself as the preeminent chess composer of his era and now is fondly remembered as “The Puzzle King”. This is in stark contrast to Paul Morphy’s legacy who, after proving himself to be the best chess player of his time, is now remembered as “The Pride and Sorrow of Chess.”
Below is a famous Mate in 3 first published by Samuel Loyd in 1857. It is likely one of the chess puzzles Sam would have shown to Paul Morphy or at the least, a problem Morphy would have seen in the newspaper while staying in New York.
White to move and mate in 3 (Composed by Samuel Loyd and published in the New York Albion, 1857).
Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California. Chris Torres served as the President of the Torres Chess and Music Academy from 2005-2020 and currently is recognized as a correspondence chess master with the United States Chess Federation. Since 1998 Chris Torres has taught 6 individual national champions as well as led multiple school teams to win national championship titles. In addition, Chris Torres has directed and taught at 10 different schools which have been California State Champions at chess. In 2011 and 2012, several former and current students of Chris Torres have been selected to represent the United States at the World Youth Chess Championships. Mr. Torres’ hobbies include playing classical guitar and getting his students to appear on the national top 100 chess rating lists.
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