@greenpawn34 said
Hi BigDogg,

It's not that I do like them, I do in a way, it is just that I get sucked in and other
things get left undone and appointments missed.

That one you set in 2020 (gosh as long ago as that?) by Unto Heinonen.
I got a full article out of it CHESS monthly in January 2021. I'll give the meat of it.

Murder in 22 Moves.

A very clever person once worked ...[text shortened]... Rh2 Nb5 16. Ba3 Nd4 17. O-O-O Nf5 18. Re1 Ng3 19. Re3 Nf1 20. Rg3 g5
21. Ndf3 Nd2 22. Rg4 Nb1[/pgn]

That one is a great problem. It was made for a composing tournament, and won a prize [although not 1st, as I thought it deserved].

@greenpawn34 said
It is good. Very good. I did look at 3.Kxe7 for about 3 seconds a day before
you gave me the hint. Of course I tried pawn to a4 first and it soon dawned on me
that it is a2-a3. Tell the composer I hate him.

Well, I'm thinking it's more the genre of problem [Proof Games in general] that you'd hate, so I won't put that all on him. 🙂

In this problem and many other PG's, one side's moves are set in stone. The only question is the move order. I think for new solvers, this feels like an annoying constraint.

Over time, however, it actually helps save solving time because you learn not to waste any time on moves that aren't on the list.

And then after you get practiced at them, you see problems where both sides have 'spare' moves and paradoxically miss the constraint, because it was a logical thread that lead to a solution.

@greenpawn34 said
At last!

[pgn]
1. Nc3 Nf6 2. Nd5 Ne4 3. Nxe7 Kxe7 4. a3 Ke6 5. a4 Ba3 6. a5 c5 7. a6 Nc6
8. axb7 Rb8 9. bxc8=N Rb5 10. Ne7 Qb6 11. Nd5 Rc8 12. Nc3 Nd8 13. Nb1 Rc6
[/pgn]

SOLV'D

This was composed by a person on another site.

I thought it was a good intro problem. The theme is sacrificing an N, promoting a replacement, and bring it home (Pronkin theme). The tempo move a3! is a nice touch.