All Questions
60
questions
5
votes
2
answers
79
views
Phase 1 of Knight Bishop Checkmate
I am working on my basic endgames and I am aware that knowing the Knight and Bishop Mate is unlikely to come up anytime soon, but I still want to know this better.
Once we reach a position like the ...
- 51
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why was this a draw? What move I supposed to play to win?
I'm playing as Black.
Why was this a draw?
What move I supposed to play to win?
[FEN ""]
[StartPly "104"]
1.e4 d6 2. Bb5+ c6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Bxc6+ bxc6 5. c4 Nxe4 6. Qa4 Nf6 7. c5 h6 ...
- 51
4
votes
1
answer
150
views
Longest forced win with a rook
What is the longest forced checkmate where the winning side has only a rook? I know this position where White has a mate in 67:
[FEN "2K4k/7p/8/8/8/8/3R4/n7 w - - 0 1"]
1. Kd7 Nb3 2. Rb2 ...
- 796
2
votes
2
answers
141
views
Rook vs Bishop on odd-order board
Suppose White has King and Rook and Black has King and Bishop on a square board of odd size (such as 9x9).
Is it generally possible for White to force checkmate?
- 796
2
votes
2
answers
232
views
Timeout vs Insufficient Material
This is not a new topic but it did happen in my game at chess.com. I was playing white and played the only legal move h7 and was checkmated on the next move.
My question is: What will happen if I just ...
- 9,101
3
votes
1
answer
277
views
Mate-in-N problems where N scales indefinitely with board size
Motivation - Long range mating patterns
This question is inspired by my recent interest in infinite chess and the post on MathOverflow Checkmate in ω moves?. Since my chess endgame skills are quite ...
- 503
1
vote
1
answer
197
views
Can a rook and King checkmate a bare King without zugzwang?
Can a rook and a king force a checkmate against a bare king that starts in the center if the opponent was allowed to pass?
- 211
2
votes
1
answer
200
views
Is there any sequence of premoves that guarantees checkmate in this particular King + Queen vs King endgame?
King + Queen vs. King is perhaps the most basic winning endgame and known to be mate in at most ten moves. However, I am wondering if there is any sequence of premoves that guarantees checkmate? For ...
- 109
2
votes
1
answer
103
views
Rook and promoted Bishop vs Rook endgame--forced win or draw?
I've recently been trying to learn the queen vs rook and rook and bishop vs rook endgames, and I've found it interesting how close the margin of victory vs draw is. I was thinking about whether the ...
- 946
8
votes
1
answer
546
views
How to checkmate with king + two knights vs king + pawn
King + two knights vs a king is a book draw, as the knights cannot get the enemy king into a checkmating position (only a stalemating position), because of the inherent clumsy nature of the knight. ...
- 163
7
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What is the required material to force a king move checkmate?
A fun thing to do is to try to achieve specific "achievements" (like these) in real games.
One such achievement is to checkmate with a king move. As the king itself obviously can't deliver ...
2
votes
0
answers
114
views
I don't understand why this scenario is checkmate. The black rook cannot move, as it's protecting black king. Can someone explain? See photo [duplicate]
So in this scenario the White Queen put the black king in check, which was then blocked by the black rook. So, how is it that the black queen moving to the position of F1 is considered checkmate? The ...
0
votes
2
answers
209
views
What is the DTM for White is this 7 piece position?
I know that is winning for White because of the Syzygy tablebases. But Stockfish 14.1 NNUE, without tablebases, returns an evaluation of only +3.23 at depth =72(!). What is White's DTM?
[FEN "8/...
- 379
12
votes
2
answers
506
views
Need Techniques for Bishop and Knight Checkmate
I understand the process for how to checkmate once in this position:
[fen "7k/8/5K2/5B2/5N2/8/8/8 w - - 0 1"]
But I need a technique for reliably getting into that kind of position from, ...
- 139
-1
votes
2
answers
484
views
Why do people say you can't mate with just a bishop? [closed]
I mean, looks pretty checkmate to me.
Everywhere I look this up, they never speak about the fact that it is at least theoretically possible to win with just a bishop and a king. Why is that? I mean ...
- 51