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Can You Solve The Perfect Chess Crime?
It's a chess mystery by GM Serper.

Can You Solve The Perfect Chess Crime?

Gserper
| 92 | Fun & Trivia

"Darn it!"

Dave couldn't hide his frustration as the ringing doorbell distracted him from Sam Loyd's chess puzzle.

"Whoever is there, please leave."

Dave was whispering while still trying to solve the tricky checkmate in two. But the doorbell kept ringing so persistently that the poor guy had to abandon his chess set and open the door.

Detective Ron Miller didn't wait for an invitation and entered the room. It was obvious that Dave's long-time friend was distressed. 

"It's him again!" Ron said.

"Who?"

"The crazy maniac—remember I told you about him? The Chessboard Killer wannabe."

Of course Dave would never forget the stories about a lunatic who was killing people all around New York state. To taunt the police, the madman always sent a clue about his crimes well in advance. The pattern was always the same: For his crimes he chose small towns all around New York state, and all his clues had something to do with chess.

"Did you get another clue from the guy?" Dave asked this question even though the answer was quite obvious.

"Yes, and that's why I am here. You are a chess player, so maybe you can help us." Ron showed his friend a strange message with a chess diagram.

The printed message was quite cryptic:

The winner of the game was born while White was executing his brilliant combination.

The diagram showed the following game:

"This is what we received from the guy a week ago. And two days ago we got another message from him."

Detective Miller unfolded another piece of paper. 

You wanna know who was the loser of the game? Then watch this commercial.

The link under the message was to this old commercial from the 1980s:

"Yesterday, we got one more clue from the madman," the detective said as he showed Dave one more typed message:

Now, when you know the players, play through their game and it will point you to the place.

"So, do you have any ideas?" Ron was looking at his friend, hoping for a miracle. 

Dave shook his head and then asked if it was feasible to closely monitor all the small towns in New York state. The detective assured him that this is exactly what the police were trying to do, but it was very difficult since there are hundreds of them

"Oops, I almost forgot, this morning we got the last message from the killer," said Ron. 

Ron Miller took the last piece of paper from his case file and then continued: "Fortunately, this time the nutcase is pretty straightforward, and he just let us know the date and time of the coming murder."

The message was very short:

October 23 at 10 p.m.

An attached diagram showed the moves:

"There is something fishy over there, Ron," said Dave as he pointed to the message. "If he just gives away the date and time, why did he provide a chess game?" 

The men spent the whole day trying to figure out the town and the time of the upcoming crime.

Can you help them to solve the mystery? Please provide your ideas in the comments. 

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