Nate Dray, Chess Problem Painting, "Sam Lloyd, 1897 - Orange moves first, mates in two"

"Sam Lloyd, 1897 - Orange moves first, mates in two"

The chess problem.

Typically, in a chess problem presentation, White moves first and achieves mate in a specified number of moves.

Here Orange takes the place of White and moves first. 

The key move Orange must first make is seemingly innocuous. 

Knights.

 Knights or Springers from Chess for a new secret project I'm working on.

 Knights! There are about 70 here but I only need 60. This probably looks like some strange fetish collection or OCD dark hoarding, but I don't think it is. I hope not. In truth, I need these for my current WIP and I acquired most of them in one haul. More on this to come as it develops and it is shaping up pretty well so far.