A crossword position is a legal chess position with the following property: The board can be thought of as a crossword grid where the pieces on board work as clues. Each type of piece is a clue for their own name (
KING
,QUEEN
,ROOK
,BISHOP
,KNIGHT
orPAWN
). That is, you can fill out the empty squares with letters corresponding to the pieces' names.You do not need to be able to fill every square of the board – only all stretches of two or more letters directly to the right or below a piece. If a word can fit both down and across from the same clue, both have to be filled.
For example, the above is a simple crossword position. Note that neither of the bishops needs to clue the word
BISHOP
because no word of at least 2 letters fits below or to the right of them.
The puzzle
In the following position, white to move (and black to help), reach a crossword position on white's third move.