Originally posted by TripcycIf you're thinking of Sam Loyd's problem, the position he found is illegal, and thus not really checkmate.
Found a method by which two rooks and a knight could mate a lone king in the middle of the board. anybody else?
This is called an 'imaginary check' in retro analysis - it is impossible to achieve in a legal game.
Yes I am thinking of Loyd, only the story I've seen via Martin Gardner is: Loyd announces in one of his columns that a discovery has been made, and later publishes the solution as [ fen 4, NRkR, 4], a somewhat smaller board but very much exactly in the middle!-- to first the fury and then amusement of his readership.(otherwise he would've had to state in 'the middle of a section of the board' as I reckon his imagination.