Sunday, April 01, 2007

Mate in One



This problem is attributed to Tartakowever.

Mate in one. How hard can it be?


[Edit: sorry - forgot to make it clear that it's White to move]

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there an invisible Black piece on c8?

Angus.

Anonymous said...

1... Rc8
2. bxc8(R/Q)# ?

Anonymous said...

*ANGUS*
No, there is no invisible black piece on c8.

*ANONYMOUS*
It's white to move so I'm afraid I shall have to discount your contribution!

Any other offers?

ejh said...

I observe the date and suggest that somehow Tartakower is going to explain how an invisible knight appears on c6.

Anonymous said...

Is it a chess interpretation of an April Fool?

Jonathan B said...

JUSTIN and our ANONYMOUS friend
You are correct in noting the date as being important here however an invisible knight appearing on c6, or anywhere else for that matter, is not the solution.

White to move and mate in 1...

keep trying my friends. The solution is out there :-)

Jonathan B said...

CLUE:
If I could edit comments I'd change my last contribution as it might be seen to be misleading

Jonathan B said...

PS:
the solution involves a legal move. At least it was legal at the time of composition (and may still be now for all I know).

ejh said...

He's not going to promote to a Black knight, is he?

ejh said...

When a pawn reaches the rank furthest from its starting position it must be exchanged as part of the same move for a new queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour

Anonymous said...

Justin,

That's exactly it. Apparently when Tartakower created this puzzle, the rules merely said the pawn had to promote - they didn't specify it had to be to a piece of the same colour.

Tom Chivers said...

There used to be a comparable problem with the phrasing of the castling law. It allowed for white e7-e8=R to be followed by a very long castle viz. Ke3, Re2, and the same symmetrically for black.

Anonymous said...

I believe there may have been a problem at one point where 'check' was defined as being "on a square attacked by one or two of the opponent's pieces" or somesuch, presumably allowing you to walk into a triple check.