Questions tagged [checkmate]
Questions relating to checkmating.
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Puzzles where the goal is to avoid being checkmated in x or fewer moves
Is there a name for puzzles where the goal is to avoid being checkmated in x moves?
An example is this puzzle:
[Title "White to play and avoid being mated on or before move 4 (there is a unique ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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What is the shortest possible way to checkmate your opponent without using a Queen? [duplicate]
I know about the 2 move mate where the 2 side pawns move up and the Queen comes in and delivers a swift checkmate, but what if the Queen was not being used, or wasn't on the board in the first place?
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Is there any position where giving checkmate by En Passant is a brilliant move on Chess.com?
I have seen many en passant checkmates, but I have never seen one that was a brilliant move.
Is there any position where giving checkmate by en passant is a brilliant move on Chess.com?
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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 ...
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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?
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What are the commonest checkmating moves in the Lichess (or similar) database?
I'm curious what checkmating move is the most common in the Lichess database? That is, the properly algebraically specified move, for a given color, like "White plays Re8#".
Answers for ...
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Most delaying moves before checkmate
Consider a position where if was player A's turn, they could make a series of moves ("the mating sequence") with forced mate.
However, it is player B's turn, and they can make a series of &...
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The Most Frequent Checkmate Patterns
Of the main checkmate patterns which are the most frequent (in games that ended with a checkmate)? Based on chess literature the Back-rank mate is arguably the most common, I would expect the Queen ...
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Most mate options after 6 moves
Found this construction problem from '83 and liked it. I don't know the best solution (yet), and maybe you can top it anyway.
Consider the (help) "game" 1.e4 a6 2.Bc4 a5 3.Qh5 a4. Now White ...
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Mate in 4. Difficult. Going crazy
A friend sent me this puzzle. He insists that Black has a mate in 4. I just can't find it.
Can someone see a mate in 4 moves here?
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Are Stockfish "Mate in X" counts ever over-optimistic?
When Stockfish gives an evaluation of, say #15, I have seen cases where this is pessimistic, and it subsequently revises its evaluation to say #9.
Are there cases where it thinks it can mate in 15, ...
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Why does Stockfish only gives -28 to a game with only a W pawn and a B rook remaining, while it should be resolved in perfect play?
In this position (W resigned) with only a pawn and a rook remaining Stockfish should have resolved the game and say "Mate in xx" (with perfect play).
However Stockfish is said to have ...
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Questions about legality of last move
Question for FIDE Arbiters and similar knowledgeable folk...
FIDE Law Article 5.1.1 The game is won by the player who has checkmated his/her opponent’s
king. This immediately ends the game, provided ...
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Mate in 2 from "The soviet Chess Primer" but wrong
I found this exercise on page 51 of the "The soviet chess primer" and I think there is a mistake. Chess.com analysis says there is a mate in 13 moves.
I'm correct thinking there is a mistake?...
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Mate Solving or problem solving software
I have some positions in my games which engine analysis indicates that some lines (not the ones I played) lead to a checkmate in 6 or 7 or 10 moves.
But normal engines are not reliable here so I use ...
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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 ...
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Unique checkmates count analysis
How many unique checkmates are there from this starting position?
I can only see 5 lines on lichess from a game I've played and have tried several different moves.
Mate in 4 is the fastest but I've ...
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A puzzle where you must find the mate in 3 solution but avoid mate in 2 and mate in 1 solutions?
I want to see if a puzzle could exist where you must avoid finding mate in 1 or 2 but just find the mate in 3 solution.
This is not subjective it is a hard math problem to make a move that forces mate ...
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How much would chess change if Black always had the last move?
In a hypothetical minor variant, could White's first-move advantage be compensated for by Black's right to last move?
Normally, White wins have White play N+1 plies to Black's N. How would the game ...
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Why did I lose -> I thought I can swap king and castle to avoid checkmate? [duplicate]
[FEN "6nN/Bp1k2pp/2n5/p7/Q4R1P/5pP1/P3qN2/4K2R w K - 0 1"]
As you can see my king got checkmated through the enemy's queen and pawn.
My question is, why is this a checkmate? I haven't moved ...
anon
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Checkmate in ω² moves with finitely many pieces
The post Checkmate in ω
moves? has inspired a lot of discussion and mathematical research into positions on an infinite chessboard where white can mate in a transfinite amount of moves. The current ...
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The king had a place to move, how is this checkmate?
The king had a place to move, how is this checkmate?
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Running out of time mid promotion to checkmate. Who wins?
In a casual blitz game I had with my friend, my last move was to promote a pawn, to ladder mate my opponent (there was already a rook on the 7th). I moved the pawn, but while I was reaching for the ...
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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 ...
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King and short rook checkmate
Suppose White has a king and a range-x rook and black has a bare king on a chessboard with dimensions y times y.
What is the minimum value of x such that for all sufficiently large y, White, moving ...
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Can a pawn move 2 spaces if doing so would cause en passant mate?
You cannot place your King in check, the en passant could be refused and because you are not placing your King in check directly it seems you can move your pawn 2 spaces. However, just like castling, ...
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Are there any hard mate-in-2 problems?
I'm interested to know if there are any particularly challenging mate-in-2 problems. Since the second move will be essentially forced, the problem essentially comes down to 1 move. Typically, the ...
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What is the fastest loss by a GM in a FIDE classical game?
What is the shortest FIDE classical game a grandmaster lost? It can be either resigning or checkmate. The opponent doesn't necessarily need to be GM. Forfeits don't count. Only serious games count, ...
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