Chess Puzzle #10177

CHESS PUZZLE #10177

Added by:	redeiperdenti
Added on:	02-Apr-09
Description:	T.Ersek, 1994
Difficulty:	online chess puzzle #10177
Attempts:	833
Solved:	208 (24%)


White to move, mate in 2

Comments: (21) » Last

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123cro
13-Mar-13, 02:24

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The puzzle seems more easy than it's been appreciated

andycp1999
13-Mar-13, 04:11

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The knight?

Knight to f3. The only place I didn't think to put the knight. I needed a hint. With these hard puzzles, it's always an unlikely, seemingly ridiculous move that gets checkmate. Oh well.

canopus1
13-Mar-13, 07:11

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Very good problem.

Try: 1.Nb3? (2.Nc5#, Nd2#, Rxe3#) but 1...Rxb3!
Try: 1.Nb5? (2.Nd6#, Nc3#, Rxe3#) but 1...Pd4!
Try: 1.Nxe6? (2.Ng5#, Nc5#, Rxe3#) but 1...Qh3!
Not ridiculous, but very intelligent problem by a famous Author Tibor Ersek.

andrew_chaz
13-Mar-13, 07:44

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very interesting puzzle

The puzzle took me 4 minutes to solve. I knew the first move had to put duel pressure on the king for checkmate so I was able to rule out all moves that did otherwise. I initially thought a rook capture of g2 would solve it but ofcourse black could prolong the invetiable with rook to f1. The knight at d4 then peaked my interest. If moved I create an attach on his pinned bishop. And i also noticed that the knight could then mate if moved one more time if black wanted to put an extra defender on his pinned bishop. After running through the those ideas the puzzle was solved

yadasampati
13-Mar-13, 08:30

Comment deleted on 13-Mar-13, 08:31.

yadasampati
13-Mar-13, 08:31

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I saw the indirect mate threat of Rxe3# within a minute and just tried out Nf3, and then realized this move created a second and a third mate threat (Ng5# and Nd2#) that black can never defend at the same time.

donfernando
13-Mar-13, 09:14

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very nice puzzle

fezzik
13-Mar-13, 11:57

Comment deleted on 13-Mar-13, 11:59.

fezzik
13-Mar-13, 11:59

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Excellent description, Canopus!

It took me a long time to see why 1.Nxe6 didn't work but 1.Nf3 did work. Very nice puzzle.

4 Stars Aesthetics. I still don't like these really artificial looking puzzles, but this was a nice challenge.

yadasampati
13-Mar-13, 12:32

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1. Nxe6 is indeed a very interesting and serious option, that seems to have no defense. It creates 3 mate threats: Nc5#, Ng5# and Rxe3#. So how can black prevent all of these with just one move? It took me a long time too to find it, mainly because i was looking for the impossible: a move that simultaneously covers c5, g5 and e3.

This was a good lesson in realizing that i should not only consider the square where a piece moves TO, but also the square where that piece moves FROM. I think we have a natural tendency to be mainly focused on the first. So the from-field in this case is e6, and black can actually prevent the knight from moving FROM that square, by pinning it on h3, either with the bishop or the queen. In this way 2 of the 3 mate threats are prevented. And if black plays Qh3 the third threat of Re3# is also prevented.

Thanks to fezzik for sharing the idea of 1. Nxe6. It was a nice puzzle in itself to find why it does not work

yadasampati
13-Mar-13, 12:41

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(the third mate threat is of course Rxe3#, as i mentioned before, and not Re3#)

donfernando
13-Mar-13, 12:47

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@yadasampati

the queen h3 will pin the knight

yadasampati
13-Mar-13, 12:57

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Thank you donfernando. but that was exactly the point i tried to make I was probably not concise enough, so maybe it was not clear

yadasampati
13-Mar-13, 13:10

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And actually canopus1 has already said everything. Thanks to him too! I read his post just after i reacted on fezzik

jdorp
13-Mar-13, 13:11

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WOW

Composing such a puzzle seems more difficult than solving it! There are some many "almost" solutions! Fantastic!

donfernando
13-Mar-13, 13:22

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@jdorp

i think compose any puzzle its harder than solve it, i dont know what the rest of the fellows here think, but in my experience i have solve hard puzzles but i aint be able to create a hard one

yadasampati
13-Mar-13, 14:07

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Composing a puzzle is not only most difficult, it is an art

Of course composing a puzzle is most difficult, because you have to not only consider the solution, but also make sure it is the only one, and hide it well, so it is not too obvious. A good puzzle therefore has a few almost-solutions to obscure the picture. It takes a lot of analysis and creative visualization to combine all this into a position.

And of course puzzles can be beautiful also (or surprising, astonishing, perplexing ...), and that is when it becomes a piece of art.

sheqo2006
13-Mar-13, 17:42

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Dissapointed

Last puzzle I did is way head in difficulty than this one. Maybe that is the objective of this puzzle. You become more perceptive about game situations.

canopus1
14-Mar-13, 06:33

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For fezzik and yadasampati.

Thank you very much.
I am a composer of chess problems, as the author of the puzzle in question, Tibor Ersek.
For example, I have composed this one:
Antonio Garofalo - Chess Life 1986
1st Prize
White : Ka1 Qe2 Rh8 Rc1 Ba8 Bf6 Ng1
Black : Kh1 Qh6 Rd7 Rd5 Bf8 Nb5 Pe6 Pf5 Pc3 Pa2 Pc2
White move and mate in two.
Not too much difficulty.

yadasampati
14-Mar-13, 11:22

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To canopus1

That is an amazing puzzle that you composed. My respects. I took the liberty to create a GK puzzle from it:

puzzle #94694. I gave it a rating of 4 stars, but strangely enough it only shows 3. If you would like me to change the description, please let me know

canopus1
15-Mar-13, 01:29

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to yadasampati

Thank you very much. For puzzle with my problem, all right, thanks.

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CHESS PUZZLE #10177