サム ロイド（1841–1911）は、アメリカのパズル作家・チェス問題作家。フィラデルフィアに生まれ、幼少期にニューヨークへ移った。14歳で初めてチェス問題が新聞に掲載され、1857年には雑誌『Chess Monthly』の問題編集を担当した。『Chess Strategy』では、多数の自作問題を通じ、駒の配置と手順によって意外な展開を生み出す構成の技法を示している。工学を学んだ経験を持ち、彫版や挿絵、新聞の仕事にも携わったロイドは、盤上の問題から、図形の組み替えや絵の見方を利用するパズルへと活動を広げた。広告に用いた「トリック・ドンキー」などでは、紙片の配置を変えるだけで、見る人の予想が覆る仕掛けを作った。『The Eighth Book of Tan』（後の再刊題『The Book of Tangrams』）は、七つの図形片から多様な形を作るタングラムを多数収め、架空の古代史を添える遊び心も備える。数学的な条件と絵や物語を組み合わせるその手法は、計算の速さだけでなく、前提や見方を変える力を読者に求めるものだった。死後の1914年に同名の息子が編集・刊行した『Cyclopedia of Puzzles』には、チェスに限らない長年のパズル制作が集成され、後世の選集や翻訳を通じて読み継がれている。
Sam Loyd (1841–1911) was an American puzzle maker and chess problem composer. Born in Philadelphia, he moved to New York as a young child. His first published chess problem appeared when he was fourteen, and in 1857 he became problem editor of Chess Monthly. In Chess Strategy, his compositions show how carefully arranged pieces and sequences of moves can produce unexpected effects. Loyd briefly studied engineering and also worked in engraving, illustration and newspapers. These activities accompanied his expansion from chess into visual and mathematical puzzles involving rearrangement, cutting and changes of perspective. Advertising puzzles such as the Trick Donkeys turned small printed pieces into devices that challenged a viewer’s initial assumptions. The Eighth Book of Tan, later republished as The Book of Tangrams, presents numerous figures formed from seven geometric pieces and surrounds the puzzles with a deliberately fanciful account of ancient origins. Combining mathematical constraints with pictures and storytelling, his work asks readers to reconsider how a problem is framed as well as how it can be calculated. His son, also named Sam Loyd, edited and published the Cyclopedia of Puzzles in 1914 after his father’s death. This collection brought together a broad body of puzzle work beyond chess and became a source for later selections and translations.
