100-Dollar theme

White and a black Excelsior theme with promotion to knights in a helpmate in 5. So far it has not been achieved without promoted force on the board.

This long-unsolved challenge dates back to 1963 and was proposed by Philip Leonhard Rothenberg (USA, 1906) in his book Personality of Chess, after years of unsuccessful attempts to compose a correct example. He offered a $100 prize to the first person to succeed, which led to the theme’s name.

See also: Excelsior.

Rinder, Gerd

Die Schwalbe, 1969