Forward for black pawns is down, in a standard chess diagram; white's side of the board is at the bottom.

So black pawns have no legal moves, while the white pawns could move (the topmost pawn) or capture either of the black rooks, although this would be disastrous for white, as the black pieces would then be able to leave their position and would checkmate white in a few moves.

King is in way, only pieces black can move are bishops.

The orientation of board is white started on bottom and black on top.

Quick thing to also remember is that the bottom right square should always be white.

He cannot move his king out of its way first due to check from the white pawn if that is what you mean. The article makes it sound like a difficult problem with some super prize. I can't believe that a chess program can't figure out it doesn't have any meaningful moves left.

Black is moving down the board.