Today, I am going to share a brilliant chess puzzle I came across on the internet.
The position below is taken from a game in 1737 involving the English chess master Philipp Stamma (c.1705–55). He authored the book 'Essai sur le jeu des echecs' (English translation: 'The Noble Game of Chess') in 1737, which introduced algebraic chess notation in an almost fully developed form before the now obsolete descriptive chess notation evolved. His name is also attached to Stamma's mate, which is a rather rare checkmate.
Take a look at the position above (white to move) and note that black is just one move away from enforcing a checkmate. Now, here's the challenge: can you come up with a forced sequence of 8 moves that leads to a checkmate for white?
You can post your answer (preferably in algebraic chess notation) as a comment below.
Lets see how many of you can solve this correctly. All the best!
The position below is taken from a game in 1737 involving the English chess master Philipp Stamma (c.1705–55). He authored the book 'Essai sur le jeu des echecs' (English translation: 'The Noble Game of Chess') in 1737, which introduced algebraic chess notation in an almost fully developed form before the now obsolete descriptive chess notation evolved. His name is also attached to Stamma's mate, which is a rather rare checkmate.
Take a look at the position above (white to move) and note that black is just one move away from enforcing a checkmate. Now, here's the challenge: can you come up with a forced sequence of 8 moves that leads to a checkmate for white?
You can post your answer (preferably in algebraic chess notation) as a comment below.
Lets see how many of you can solve this correctly. All the best!
1. Queen to f4 (check).
ReplyDelete2. if black captures the queen by f5 pawn, then white's dark square bishop moves to f4 (check).
3. If black blocks with rook, capture the rook (it's a futile move, but we should exhaust the possibilities while analysing the sequence)
4. black king moves to a8. White's next move is knight to b6 (check).
5. Black's only move is capturing the knight by pawn.
6. White then captures the pawn back, and at the same time the black king is exposed to a check by white's a3 rook. And it is a mate.
No mate, its not a mate! Black can block by moving his knight to a6.
DeleteSorry, a little is left. I missed it :P
ReplyDeleteCapture the knight by the rook. Black has to take the rook by pawn (that's the only move). White then checks black king by moving light square bishop to g2, and this is a mate. :)
Not exactly! Note that your final check (which you claim to be a mate) can in fact be blocked by black's light square bishop.
DeleteEven this is not a mate (black can block by white bishop). Sorry for repeated mistakes.
ReplyDeleteAfter black blocks by knight, white captures black's light square bishop at c8, by white's rook at c1. Black's only move is capturing the rook back by her rook at d8. Then white captures black knight by her rook. Black has to take the rook by pawn (that's the only move). Finally white checks black king by moving her bishop to g2. Mate.
Yes .. you've nailed it this time! :)
DeleteI should admit that even the final version contained a bug which you pointed out, and that conversation happened off this thread!
Delete