Editing Babson task (section)

==Selfmate Babsons==
The earliest Babson tasks are all in the form of a [[selfmate]], in which White, moving first, must force Black to deliver checkmate against Black's will within a specified number of moves. In 1914, Babson himself published such a problem, in which three different white pawns shared the promotions. 

{{Chess diagram
| tright
| '''Henry Wald Bettmann''' <br>1st Prize, 1925–26 Babson Task Tourney

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |nl
|pl|pd|pd|  |  |pl|  |  
|rl|rd|kd|  |  |  |  |pl
|kl|  |pl|  |  |  |  |  
|  |pl|  |  |pl|  |  |pl
|  |  |pl|  |  |  |  |ql
|  |  |  |  |  |pd|  |rl
|  |  |  |  |  |nl|bl|  

| Selfmate in three
}}

[[Henry Wald Bettmann]] composed the first problem in which one black pawn and one white pawn were involved in all promotions, winning 1st prize in the Babson Task Tourney 1925–26.<ref>Howard, Kenneth S., ''The Enjoyment of Chess Problems'', Dover Publications, 1961, p. 213.</ref>

The key in Bettmann's problem is 1.a8=B, after which play is as follows:

{{unordered list|style=list-style-position:inside
|1...fxg1{{=}}Q 2.f8{{=}}Q (2.f8{{=}}R? Qxf1 3.b5+ Kxc5; both 2.f8{{=}}B? and 2.f8{{=}}N? fail to Qg8!) Qxf1 3.b5+ (3.Qfxf1? Rxa6 is not checkmate, as White can play 4.Qxa6) Qxb5#; or Qxc5 3.b5+ (3.bxc5? Rxa6 is not checkmate, as White can play 4.Kb4; 3.Qxc5 checkmates black, entirely wrong for a selfmate) or 2...Q-any 3.anyxQ Rxa6#
|1...fxg1{{=}}R 2.f8{{=}}R (2.f8{{=}}Q? Rxf1 3.Qfxf1 (3.b5 checkmates Black) Rxa6 is not checkmate, as White can play 4.Qxa6) R-any 3.anyxR Rxa6#
|1...fxg1{{=}}B 2.f8{{=}}B (2.f8{{=}}Q? Bxc5 3.bxc5 (3.b5 checkmates Black; 3.Qxc5 checkmates Black) Rxa6 is not checkmate, as White can play 4.Kb4)  B-any 3.anyxB Rxa6#
|1...fxg1{{=}}N 2.f8{{=}}N (2.f8{{=}}Q? Nxh3! 3.Rxh3 Kd7) N-any 3.anyxN Rxa6#
}}

Various other composers later composed similar problems.
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