Elegant Checkmate?

Logic Level 2

It's white's turn. Is it possible to checkmate the black king? If so, what is the minimum number of moves?

Yes, by 2 moves Yes, by 3 moves Yes, by number of moves not given No, it is impossible to checkmate

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Michael Huang by Michael Huang , 29, USA

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2 solutions

Michael Huang
Jan 6, 2017
White Black
1. ... g5
2. hxg6 Kh5
3. Rxh7#

Looking at last two moves (2 and 3) after the black moved the pawn two ranks forward, it's White turn, which starts at the second move. After en passant , since the Black does not have any choice, but to move the king forward, the White can capture the last unprotected pawn with the rook, resulting in the checkmate.

3 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

The last move in the given position was made by black. In the given position only g7-g5 was the possible last black move, establishing this is the trick here. Even if the black pawn was moved from g7-g6 the end result would be same, the hxg6 move is next and mate follows on rxh7#. Nice puzzle!

Siva Bathula - 4 years, 5 months ago

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Yes, that is also true. :)

Michael Huang - 4 years, 5 months ago

Nice checkmate! I think you should specify that you mean the minimum number of White moves, not the minimum total number of moves.

Dan Ley - 4 years, 5 months ago

The picture is not specific enough,so i did not know it could have been captured by en passant.

Tan Yi Xun - 4 years, 5 months ago

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Actually one has to guess the last move made by black. In the given position only g7-g5 was possible.

Siva Bathula - 4 years, 5 months ago

The picture is not specific enough,so i did not know it could have been captured by en passant.

Process of elimination: a brief consideration shows that Black's last move could not have been g7-h6, and the only other possibility is that it was g7-g5.

Peter Byers - 4 years, 4 months ago

Should it be specified that you are looking at the board from white's perspective?

Geoff Pilling - 4 years, 5 months ago

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I was thinking the same thing, maybe white is set up by convention in rows 1 and 2

Dan Ley - 4 years, 5 months ago

There is no thing in g6.....how could the mmove hxg6??????

shithil Islam - 4 years, 2 months ago
Tim Waring
Jan 19, 2017

Moving the white King to g4 is checkmate.

Black cannot move his pawns, so he has to move the king. The g row is pressured by the white pawns, and the only other possibility is taking the white pawn on h5, which is defended by the white king.

1 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

No, it's not a checkmate, it's a stalemate...

miksu rankaviita - 4 years, 4 months ago

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