When we previously talked about Der Alte, it was considerably older but the old one in question was considerably younger. For the first one hundred episodes, Der Alte‘s protagonist was played by Siegfried Lowitz, who has the virtue of looking extremely old. In this episode, he is investigating the murder of a dr. Lederer who is shot on the runway of a local airport for small, private planes. Who killed him?1 Where did his briefcase go? Was he entangled in some unsavoury business? Der Alte must find out!
One of the obvious steps in the investigation is to have a look around the victim’s apartments and talk with the people he knew. As part of this step, they find out that poor dr. Lederer was a fervent chess player. He can’t have been all bad, then!
It turns out that he was supposed to finish an adjourned game he’d been playing with a friend. The position is still on the board. Was it set up correctly? Where did the pieces go? Was there some unsavoury business going on? We must find out!2
The answer to the first question is a definite no, although I have rectified that in the diagram above. The answer to the second question is: next to the board. The answer to the third question is: yes, but probably nothing illegal.
It is a mystery, though, why any one would adjourn a game in the above position. Even if I’m mistaken and the piece on b8 is a queen instead of a rook — probably the best-case scenario for black — he utterly lost. In fact, the detective points out that Qa4+ would have finished the game immediately. Obviously the clearest possible motive for murder — and yet the police never even consider it. Inconceivable!3
Realism: 3/5 It’s not impossible something like this could occur in a game between two mediocre players.
Probable winner: White is much better, but he’s dead, so probably black.
1. [He should just have looked at the title: it’s orchestrated by the only children that appear in the story.] ↩
2. [Using der alte diagram editor.] ↩
3. [Although for such a deep connection they probable need Der Basse.] ↩