Series mate puzzle (Re: Four chess logic puzzles)
Noam D. Elkies
Itamar Faybish <ifaybis...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Hi,
>Here is another logic puzzle that I hope you will like. I made it up,
>based on the idea of the 1-2-3 chess variant game. This variant of
>chess I like a lot, it goes like this: white plays one move, then
>black plays 2 moves, then white plays 3 moves, then black plays 4
>moves, and so on. The goal is to checkmate the opposite king, as in
>normal chess. One important rule: as soon as one places the opposite
>king in check with any piece, one cannot play more moves and it is to
>the players whose king is in check to play (unless he is checkmate of
>course). Between strong players, this variant can go more than 8 moves
>consecutive to play, and give beautiful puzzles on each game. Try it !
>:-)
This chess variant is more commonly known as "progressive chess".
There's a 13-move game at <http://www.cis.hut.fi/~tho/chess.html>,
and a 14-move game at <http://www.cis.hut.fi/~tho/wipcc96final.html>
that I won though it should have ended in a rare draw. I think
I've seen a game that would go out to move 25 or so if played out
to mate, though one side resigned seeing the inevitable conclusion.
>Board setup:
>White: Pawns: a2, b3, d3, f2, g5
> Bishop: e2
> Rooks: f1, h1
> King: e1
>Black: Pawns: a7, a6, c7, d7, d4, e5, g6, h5
> Knights: b8, f5
> Bishops: e7, e6
> Rooks: a8, f8
> Queen: c5
> King: e8
+-----------------+
| r n . _ k r . _ |
| p . p p b . _ . |
| p _ . _ b _ p _ |
| _ . q . p n P p |
| . _ . p . _ . _ |
| _ P _ P _ . _ . |
| P _ . _ B P . _ |
| _ . _ . K R _ R |
|_________________|
A rather unlikely position in a progressive chess game,
but one can still try it as a puzzle.
>Questions:
>1) White to play and checkmate in 8 consecutive moves.
>2) Remove the rook on f1, and then: White to play and checkmate in 9
>consecutive moves.
>3) Remove the rook on h1, and then: White to play and checkmate in 11
>consecutive moves. Yes, it is possible ! :-)
Such puzzles are also known as "Series (direct) mate" problems.
Ideally one would like to have a unique move sequence, without
even the possibility of transposing moves; but this is apparently
not the case here.
Partial solutions (including one improvement) follow:
2) [removing either Rook]
b4 b5 b6 b:c7 b8=N Kd2 Rb1 R:b8 Nd6, double check and mate
3) [mate in 10, not 11 as stipulated; if it must be exactly 11
then throw in a random move like a4]
Bg4 B:f5 Be4 f4 f5 f:g6 g7 g:f8=N N:e6 Bg6, mate
Curiously both of these involve Knight promotions.
For #1 I can see several other ways to mate in 9
but haven't found an 8-move one yet. Of course
in an actual game of progressive chess this would never
matter because White always has an odd number of moves to play!
--Noam D. Elkies
Itamar Faybish
>
> Such puzzles are also known as "Series (direct) mate" problems.
> Ideally one would like to have a unique move sequence, without
> even the possibility of transposing moves; but this is apparently
> not the case here.
>
> Partial solutions (including one improvement) follow:
>
>
> 2) [removing either Rook]
> b4 b5 b6 b:c7 b8=N Kd2 Rb1 R:b8 Nd6, double check and mate
>
> 3) [mate in 10, not 11 as stipulated; if it must be exactly 11
> then throw in a random move like a4]
> Bg4 B:f5 Be4 f4 f5 f:g6 g7 g:f8=N N:e6 Bg6, mate
>
> Curiously both of these involve Knight promotions.
> For #1 I can see several other ways to mate in 9
> but haven't found an 8-move one yet. Of course
> in an actual game of progressive chess this would never
> matter because White always has an odd number of moves to play!
>
> --Noam D. Elkies
Hi Noam, thank you for your precisions :-) I did not know the name,
progressive chess, and much less that there are progressive chess
tournaments! For the solutions, number 2) is what I had, in number 3),
I did not analyse carefully enough, and did a rather silly: Bg4 B:f5
B:e6 f4 f5 f:g6 g7 g:f8/N Bf5 Ne6 Bg6, tsss.. :-) Well seen anyway..
Larry Tapper
> +-----------------+
> | r n . _ k r . _ |
> | p . p p b . _ . |
> | p _ . _ b _ p _ |
> | _ . q . p n P p |
> | . _ . p . _ . _ |
> | _ P _ P _ . _ . |
> | P _ . _ B P . _ |
> | _ . _ . K R _ R |
> |_________________|
>
> A rather unlikely position in a progressive chess game,
> but one can still try it as a puzzle.
>
> >Questions:
>
> >1) White to play and checkmate in 8 consecutive moves.
[...]
> For #1 I can see several other ways to mate in 9
> but haven't found an 8-move one yet. Of course
> in an actual game of progressive chess this would never
> matter because White always has an odd number of moves to play!
>
> --Noam D. Elkies
Here's an 8-move solution:
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Rxh5 Rh7 Rf7 Bh5 Bxg6 Rh1 Rh8 Rfxf8++
LT
Natty
HI my name is Natty can tell me what is the best sequence to beat someone?