The 16 piece Barbie tea set above might make a nice gift for a young daughter or granddaughter, or perhaps even for an avid collector of such things. There are also 16 piece china sets, 16 pieces per side in the game of chess, and 16 balls in a game of pool. Most caterpillars have 16 legs, and there are 16 personality types on the Myers-Briggs classification. (You might look that one up and see where checker players might fit in.) Last but not least, there is the "sweet sixteen" birthday tradition, and we should also point out that base 16 (hexadecimal) numbers are very commonly utilized in the world of computers.

In the latest of Mr. Bill Salot's ongoing series of checker problem composition contests, we see a different use of 16; Mr. Salot presents us with three problems, each of which contains a total of 16 pieces. These are massive stroke problems and will require great visualization skill to solve without moving pieces on a board. The problems can all be found on the contest page". Be sure to vote for your favorite!

As an introduction to this contest's theme, Mr. Salot sent along this 16 piece beauty from the late and much missed grandmaster composer Ed Atkinson. It's called Tossed Salad.

BLACK

WHITE
White to Play and Win

W:W7,K11,K12,14,16,K18,22,K28:B2,5,10,13,K17,20,25,K26

Take as long as you wish. Give it at least 16 good attempts before clicking on Read More to see the solution.

Solution

*18 23---A, 26-19, *28 32, 17-26, *7 3, 10-17, *12 8, 19-12, *11 16, 12-19, *3 7, White Wins.

A---Not 12 8, *20-24, 28 19, *10-15, 19 10, *2-6, Black Wins.

We hope you enjoyed this problem, and remind you that three more await you on the contest page!