Charles XII at Bender
There was prosperous chess life in my home town when I was a little child about early 70th. That time our local chess club was led by István Szántó who was a strong correspondence player. He played at World Championship Final as mentioned in ICCF article.
The members of local chess club Battonya, Hungary, about 1970
My father brought me with him several times when they came togther to analyse some games. One day Szántó entertained me with a historical chess puzzle. The story was about a king in war playing a game and announcing mate in 3 when a bullet removed a piece off the table. But he just anounced mate in 4. Then another bullet removed another piece, but he just announced mate in 5. Cool isn’t it?
It was about 40 years ago, and for long years I wasn’t able to remember the puzzle itself. The story was always in my mind and couple of yers ago I started to search chess puzzle books in second hand bookshops. And finally I find this:
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Nowadays in internet era you can find this puzzle easily in several places like
Moreover you can read the original story in Chess Monthly 1859.