Editing Helpmate (section)

== History ==
The first helpmate problem was by the German chess master [[Max Lange]], published in ''[[Deutsche Schachzeitung]]'', December 1854.  The problem had White to move and White could play in a number of different ways to achieve the same mate (''{{chessprobgloss|duals}}''), considered a serious flaw today.

In ''[[The Chess Monthly (American magazine)|The Chess Monthly]]'', November 1860, American puzzle inventor [[Sam Loyd]] published the first helpmate with Black to move as is now standard, one intended main line, and an attractive but false solution (a ''{{chessprobgloss|try}}'') to mislead solvers.  However, this problem too had a minor dual, and also had the major flaw (or ''{{chessprobgloss|cook}}'') of having a second, completely separate solution, not noted by the author.  Even so, it was a much better problem than Lange's and its presentation, incorporating a story written by D. W. Fiske, established the genre.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chessbase.com/puzzle/puzzle11/puzz11-5a.htm |title=Need some help, mate? |date=2002-12-29 |author=Frederic Friedel |website=chessbase.com |access-date=2006-10-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070128013824/http://www.chessbase.com/puzzle/puzzle11/puzz11-5a.htm |archive-date=2007-01-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The first completely sound helpmate was by A. Barbe of Leipzig, published in ''105 Leipziger Ill. Familien-Journal'', 1861.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://chessproblem.net/viewtopic.php?p=102&sid=b993cd65a915d1871e6ee93636c6811d|title = The Discovery of Helpmate - ChessProblem.net}}</ref>

The term "help-mate" originated in ''The Problem Art'' by T. B. and F. F. Rowland (Kingstown, 1897).<ref>[http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/earliest.html chesshistory.com] quoting ''[[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]]''.</ref> The helpmate problem task has since increased in popularity to be second only to the [[directmate]] and is no longer considered to be part of [[fairy chess]].
<!-- Some info from the Chessproblem.net forum, topic "The Discovery of the Helpmate", 8 December 2006 [http://chessproblem.net/viewtopic.php?p=102&sid=b993cd65a915d1871e6ee93636c6811d].  Thanks to Edward Winter for the pointer to this serendipitously recent and relevant thread.  --Wfaxon -->