Accompanied as ever by the faithful Watson, Holmes is summoned to investigate why chess games at a number of clubs and stately homes have been mysteriously abandoned. Using his remarkable powers of deduction and retrograde analysis, Holmes reconstructs, move by move, the events that occurred at the scene of the crime - the chessboard. No sooner is the solution arrived at than the game is afoot once more - this time in pursuit of the murderous Moriarty, whose contribution of 10 devilish chess problems can be found at the end of the book.