Is This A Party Or A War?

Logic Level 1

It is White's move. What is the minimum number of moves White needs to checkmate the Black king?

1 2 3 4

View wiki
Anish Harsha by Anish Harsha , 20, India

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

3 solutions

Discussions for this problem are now closed

Sharky Kesa
May 29, 2016

Relevant wiki: Chess Puzzles

  1. Qa8!

This move is to force Black into a zugzwang, where moving a piece would result in them losing the strength of their position. In this new position, Black is forced to move his rook since all the other pieces are not able to move. If we have

  1. ... Rg7
  2. Qh1#

If the rook does not play onto g7, we have

  1. ... ...
  2. Qg8#

Thus, there are 2 moves required for checkmate.

46 Helpful 2 Interesting 0 Brilliant 2 Confused

The rook doesn't have to move. 1. ... Kg7 2. Qg8# is also possible.

Lew South - 4 years, 11 months ago
Joe Freeman
May 24, 2016

I had something entirely different...

Move your bishop up to G8

The rook must take your bishop.

Queen to H6

42 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 1 Confused

After 1.Bg8+ the rook doesn't need to take. The king can move to h8.

Seth-Riley Adams - 5 years ago
Craig Harrison
May 24, 2016

The knight moves to F6. The rook must take this knight as the king cannot move out of check. The Queen then moves to G8.

27 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 2 Confused

After 1.Nf6+ Rxf6 2.Qg8+ black can still move the king to h6 (2...Kh6). The actual solution is 1.Qa8! the king and pawn have no legal moves, so the rook has to move. If the rook moves anywhere besides 1...Rh6, white checkmates with 2.Qh1# and after 1...Rh6 white plays 2.Qg8#.

Seth-Riley Adams - 5 years ago

That is the correct first move. But I think the rest of your reply needs some thought.

The black king can actually move with the white queen on a8. And only if the black rook moves 1... Rg7 then 2. Qh1# is correct. Otherwise I see 2.Qg8# for all other black moves.

Perhaps I missed something, but that was my solution.

Steven Perkins - 5 years ago

Yes, that is true. I was in a hurry when I posted my solution. Thank you for pointing this out.

Seth-Riley Adams - 5 years ago

@Seth-Riley Adams – I cant understand. What is the correct solution?

Angela Fajardo - 5 years ago

@Angela Fajardo – After 1.Qa8 if the rook moves anywhere besides 1...Rg7, white plays 2.Qg8#. After 1...Rg7 white checkmates with 2.Qh1#.

Seth-Riley Adams - 5 years ago

@Seth-Riley Adams – Ah okay Thanks :)

Angela Fajardo - 5 years ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...