"It's always better to sacrifice your opponent's men."
—Savielly Tartakower on Chess
White to mate in two
Add a comment to this post with your solution. I'll buy a beer for the first person to correctly solve the problem next Tuesday, during our regular session at Matchless. Please show as many variations as possible—the winner will be the first person to correctly list all variations. In the event that no one does, the first person to list the most variations will win.
You sure it’s White to mate in two moves?
Yup–White to move and mate in two. Why? Did I set the problem up wrong?
Something must be wrong because this puzzle is making me feel inadequate.
Is it just me or is it
1. Kf3, then any black move and white mates Qe4.
Unless
1. … Qxd4
2. Knc7#
or
1. … Qe5
2. QxQ
1.Kf3 Bxe6 (for example)
2.Qe4 Kd6, getting away.
oh yeah, you’re right. forgot about opening up that diagonal.
tricky.
had fritz help to solve. so not claiming the beer, but it is doable.
Good try, Boris, but 1. Kf3 or 1. Kf1 is met by 1…Qf7!, pinning the White queen to the king and defending against 2. Nc7#. Sorry to hear about your frustration, bicyclethief!
Ok, here's the solution:
1.Kh1! (zugzwang)
1…Bxd4 2.e4#
1…Bd6 2.Qf3#
1…Be7 2.Nc7#
1…gxh5, Bxe6, Nxe6 2.Bf3#
1…Q~ rank, Qe5 2.Q(x)e5#
1…Q~ SW-NE, Qc7, Bf7, Sd7 2. N(x)c7#
1…Qxh6 2. Nc7,Qe5#
This problem was by Comins Mansfield, Wilhelm Massmann, Lev Loshinsky. It won 3rd Prize, Problem, 1959.
If it were Black to play, all of his moves would be met with immediate mate, so all White has to do is find a waiting move. The only white piece that plays no part in any of the mates is the white king so that is an obvious candidate to make the key. However, unless White chooses accurately, the position of the white king after the key will enable Black to pin the potential mating piece to the white king.
ummm I’m sorry but I’m not sure what the heck your chess notation is there ~Jeffrey~ I don’t understand it (if I’m reading it right, that’s no where near the right answer. so I’m going to assume that I must not be reading it right) The answer and only answer as I see it is - Pawn from E6 to E7 to start it off - then depending on what black does next, then white moves to mate regardless of any move that black does. This is the only way for white to mate in two moves.
No, Jeffrey looks right. (He ought to be– he posted the puzzle.)
After 1.e7 Qxe7, I don’t see a mate for White in one anywhere.
yea sorry about that, I was wrong I only looked at it after I got home Tuesday night for like no more than ten minutes. when I went to bed I couldn’t stop thinking about it and then I came to me that I forgot that Qxe7 or not so much that I forgot but that I didn’t factor that in. And the next day in the morning wile I was taking a shower I found myself thinking about it again and then an understanding of Jeffrey’s chess notation came to me and I realized then that he was right.
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