Chess Puzzle #4953

CHESS PUZZLE, FEN 4R3/3b4/2q5/k2N4/n1P1K3/1Q6/1P6/8 w - -

Added by:	kingdawar
Added on:	28-Jun-08
Description:
Difficulty:	chess puzzle 4R3/3b4/2q5/k2N4/n1P1K3/1Q6/1P6/8 w - -
Attempts:	1630
Solved:	915 (56%)


White to move, mate in 3

Comments: (20) » Last

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bunnyrabbitz
22-Apr-15, 00:24

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about 1.5 minutes

No drinking tonight - got it with no misses in about 1.5 minutes. A clever puzzle - I liked this one.

mrfery
22-Apr-15, 03:26

Comment deleted on 22-Apr-15, 05:04

kaupanger
22-Apr-15, 04:21

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Another nice one kingdawar

Humorous and logical - it can be immediately seen that all white checks are covered and that there is only one escape square for the K. Freeing and blocking then solve each other. Made me smile. Thanks.

cliveva
22-Apr-15, 04:39

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very enjoyable

white seemed to be able to defend all attacks, but with the queen moved, the opportunity for a pawn mate opens up, very neat.

paviland
22-Apr-15, 04:51

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Enjoyed This

You can't help thinking that the pawn on b2 is probably there for a reason & the challenge becomes finding how to mate with it in just 3 moves. Fun puzzle that needed some thought - gave 3 stars.

mrfery
22-Apr-15, 05:08

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One star

It doesn't deserve more than one star because you can not miss the first move which is, as it's the trend in this section , a Queen Sac. Moreover they are not more than couple of lines to examine. In that sens the solution comes very quickly.

paviland
22-Apr-15, 05:23

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Difficulty Is Relative

What may be obvious to one person isn't always obvious to another! Solving puzzles is about identifying patterns & we don't all recognise the same patterns equally quickly, if at all.
Don't ask me why but I can sometimes solve the hard puzzle of the day with a solved rate below 10% relatively easily but then stumble on the 'easy' one.
So I try to rate these puzzles according to the amount of concentration I had to put in - it's an entirely subjective assessment but there it is

fezzik
22-Apr-15, 05:34

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Nice easy puzzle.

I saw the solution very quickly this time but felt I must be missing some trick because the solve rate was so low.

I more or less agree with Paviland, except that I grade puzzles a bit more on the attractiveness of the solution. In this case, the deflection was very obvious, and the pawn mate was cute but also fairly obvious. All in all, it was an average puzzle for this site. I was leaning towards giving it two stars except that it's solve rate was so low that I boosted it to 3.

morphman
22-Apr-15, 09:46

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nice puzzle - 2 stars

the first move was the trickiest - there are so many other promising looking moves that lead to mate, if black would just cooperate by making the wrong move ... but when you look at Qb5+, it becomes quickly obvious from that point on, because black's moves are all forced.

mbomb007
22-Apr-15, 10:09

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1 star

I tried Ra8+ first, followed by Qb5+, but it doesn't work if black takes the rook, so I tried switching the order of moves and that worked.

macheide
22-Apr-15, 10:37

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Nice puzzle. Thanks.

randieg
22-Apr-15, 13:18

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I hesitated on that first move, Qb5+. I knew that if I made that move, the white queen could be taken by the black queen, so I explored the possibility of moving Ra8+, like mbomb007 did, and that led me to realize exactly why I needed to sacrifice the white queen.

genelee
22-Apr-15, 13:51

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Real Life vs Puzzles

Much better comments the last two to three days! & better star ratings! I like it!

With puzzles you know in advance that a Mate is possible within x number of moves and motivation for that particular solution becomes a focal point!

These are much harder in real life when nothing is promised.

jsiehler
22-Apr-15, 17:03

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Very pretty puzzle!

paviland
23-Apr-15, 05:27

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fezzik

I agree & I think most of us probably award that little extra for aesthetic quality but I got taken to task for doing just that a little while ago, by someone who pointed out that the star rating is supposed to be based on difficulty alone!
Who knows why it is that we find a particular set-up not at all obvious when others appear to find it straightforward?

genelee
23-Apr-15, 06:10

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Who was taken to task?

If the shoe fits ... ? You called it!

I did not call any specific person on anything; I just observed something that should have been obvious to ... ... ... and now you tell us you felt guilty and put the shoe on ... and tied the laces!

You were not even one who I felt was guilty or culpable in any way ...

I have to smile again! Thanks for the confirmation that I was correct, even if I missed the guilty party/ies.

mbomb007
23-Apr-15, 10:19

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@paviland

The star rating is based on difficulty alone for PUZZLES. For chess tactics, it asks you to rate stars based on beauty of the solution. Maybe that's what some people prefer to rate by.

fezzik
23-Apr-15, 10:34

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Star rating revisited

The solve rate gives a fairly true measure of a problem's difficulty, as long as the puzzle has been tried by at least 100 people.

The star rating is based on whatever the user giving the stars wants it to be. The fact that there are almost no 5-star puzzles and many puzzles with solve rates under 10% are rated as "average" 3-star puzzles shows that the star system is NOT based on difficulty alone.

On this site, the star system is pretty useless as an indicator of difficulty. It's pretty useless anyway, except as a personal guide, using the ratings that you yourself gave to the puzzle.

Personally, I use the star system to mark which puzzles I like. That includes difficulty, and to some extent beauty. I give most Philidor Mate puzzles 1 star because they are ubiquitous and boring. Fortunately, we haven't seen too many of those in the daily puzzles lately.

genelee
23-Apr-15, 12:41

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fezzik is right!

On this site, the star system is pretty useless as an indicator of difficulty. It's pretty useless anyway, except as a personal guide, using the ratings that you yourself gave to the puzzle.

capafan
19-Feb-26, 08:43

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Suddenly, 7 years after puzzle is posted,,,

...in a matter of 2 days, we get a Comment every hour or two --for 2 days-- mind you, a total of 18 Comments.

None for 7 years, then 18 in 2 days.

And it happens on different puzzles, over and over, week after week. Hmmmm. 🧐

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