In the above position, I was playing Black. After getting bashed around for a a while, I decided it was finally time to start playing chess. To add insult to injury my opponent returned his pieces back to their original squares as if to say, "It's time to resign!" But I decided that as long as I have a king that I'm in the game.
Oophs! It's actually white's move and it is mate in three. Can you find it?
The FEN is below if you want to cut and paste this difficult position into a chess engine:
8/8/8/8/7k/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQ – 0 1
If you can find this without an engine, my friend, you are on your way to becoming a master.
Oh by the way. Although I do sometimes play this poorly, this puzzle is based on a theme by W. A. Shinkman, and the mate-in-three was first solved by Sam Loyd. The puzzle above was published in the Leeds Mercury Supplement in 1895.
Cheers
Paul
I believe I got it. Close your eyes now if you don't want the solution. First you have to play 1.d4 to keep the king from escaping to the dark diagonal. Then 2.Qd3 to keep the king from escaping to the light diagonal. Wherever the king goes 3.Qh3 is mate.
ReplyDeleteshoot, that's not it :(
ReplyDeleteAlright. I believe I got it this time. Ha ha! 1.d4 is correct. Actually my initial variation is correct if black plays 1.Kh5. But what if black plays 1.Kg4? Then 2.e4! followed by 3.g3 mate.
ReplyDelete