chess online

I don't really care for these artificial positions. But at least this one is possible. And I do like that the first two moves aren't checks. So while the position itself is a bit artificial, Black's moves are very natural. But WHY is it Black to move?

Having said all that, I was surprised that only 38% have successfully solved this one so far.

I think I might have had a hard time with this one except I listened to the description. I could care less if a problem is realistic or not but this one has a nugget in it and that is if your king is reasonably well protected it allows you time to make an attack.

It becomes very clear very quickly that one has to contain the black king. I analysed Rb2 first and quickly realised this was no good, after that there is only Bh6.

This position might be theoretically possible, but it's practically never going to happen. One must question why white underpromoted, why black underpromoted, and also how the three white rooks managed to get themselves trapped in the pawns without any of them being captured, or without the black knight being captured. This is what happens when cats play chess.

Edit...

It becomes very clear very quickly that one has to contain the WHITE king.

fun checkmate!

woutstra, why not?

The're really not extra. The puzzlee has to conclude which pieces may be a threat before he can proceed with moving pieces which don't result in a check. The more pieces on the board the more difficult a correct assessment can be made. As we become better chess players we observe what color squares we control or how do we take out an opponents bishop without actually capturing it or by tying up your opponents rooks and in this case white's rooks are ready to be branded.

I'm with fezzik, ecomoy of pieces is an impotant aspect of puzzle compositions. If you look at compositions that have won awards, all of them are composed in a manner in which all pieces serve a purpose. I have made a few puzzles, and with the exception of real game positions, I always try to ensure there are no redundant pieces. Often, the key to solving good compositions is working out the purpose of each piece. When there's extra pieces, it can make the puzzle more difficult, but makes it ugly.