chess online

One move mate - cmon

At the start of the game, black rook occupies square h8. Therefore white pawn can only move to g8. The 2 move checkmate is therefore valid, as Qf8 would be followed by Pg8 and exchange for a Queen.

Thanks Phonybenoni, I missed the capture.
Only excuse for me is that I was disoriented!

Remember that the puzzles orient the board with whatever color you are, so opponents pawns always move toward you. There is no confusion here if you stick to your knowledge of how to play chess.

It's like learning to drive a manual car when you've driven automatic all your life: don't be so occupied by shifting that you forget to steer!  

Not so... because if you are white, black's pawns would still move toward you. Either way, the pawns move toward you.

People -- it's important to realize that depending on the length of time you spend studying the board, there is a certain statistical probability concerning the amount of information that you have seen and processed. In other words, if you are stumped than it's because mathematically you have not spent enough time studying the board! I certainly benefit from group discussions such as these but oftentimes it is wiser to spend more time studying the board yourself before posting questions.

very easy, but still nice!

1.5 stars yet only 49% of people can solve it. something is wrong with the rating system

This is a one move checkmate

@archiphile
there are no pawns on the 'a file'

it's not valubale,you can mate in one move in f8 or d8 and when the black quen go to e5 the white GL go h7 and white king can escape

kphone...have you ever played a game of chess before? only one side can move at a time. and the artist is the creator of the puzzle, not the person solving it...

I tried to determine the orientation of the board by clicking on the white pawns which normally indicates their possible moves - alas there was no revealing of their orientation.

If we assume that the software encodes the paradigm that opposing pawns travel towards you, i.e. down the screen, then your argument is tenable.

HOWEVER, given that
(a) possible pawn moves were not shown, and
(b) the two pawns aligned on h7 and g7 are more usually found shielding the king in defence having not moved, and
(c) the arrangement of white king and pawns in the puzzle is entirely hypothetical and not a typical endgame trick as it is EXTREMELY unlikely to occur in a real chess game, then the apparent confusion is understandable.

Thus the 50% who were unable to solve the puzzle are the 50% who applied my logic and should not be given a 'high brow' attitude...

@jamesprincex

The pawns ARE showing their possible moves. The problem is that the h7 pawn is blocked (by the white king) and the g7 pawn is pinned by the black queen.

Regardless of what you see typical or not, the fact is the white pawns always move towards the 8th row and the black towards the 1st row.

It is the solver's responsibility to take into account all the conditions of the puzzle. Carelessness may be induced by the puzzle, but is always the fault of the solver. Indeed, if these puzzle are approached as a learning opportunity, careful study of the conditions is part of the learning process.

Remember, a computer has checked these positions for basic soundness. If the solver thinks there's a mate in one, they should take that as a clue that they are under a misapprehension.

By the way, if the position were actually oriented with White at the bottom but Black still to move, it would be a ridiculous situation that would never occur in a game. White's last move would have to have been the blunder Kb1-a1 (possibly capturing a knight on that square), instead of winning by taking the queen on c3.

black is trying to get his pawns turned into queens people look a little harder