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I dug up the below old position when going through a Google Docs document today. I know that it's supposed to be a somewhat winding, clearly dualed, selfmate. To be honest, I genuinely don't know the solution to it. This makes it all the more challenging to solve.

So, in few moves can White force Black to checkmate them? Enjoy solving, and good luck!

enter image description here

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1 Answer 1

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I find a selfmate in

14 moves - but it may be shortened.

The key must be

1.Qc3

And the plan:

with consecutive checks by white queen, rook and bishop, drag the black king to g6 and stalemate it.

Then,

the only legal move for Black will be the mating double check Ne7#.

Concretely :

1.Qc3 Kb1 2.Qb3 Kc1 3.Qb2 Kd1 4.Rd3 Ke1 5.Bc3 Kf1 6.Rf3 Kg1 7.Qc1 Kg2 8.Qf1 Kh2 9.Rf2 Kg3 10.Qg2 Kh4 11.Qh2 Kg4 [11...Kg5 12.Qf4 Kh5 13.Rh2 Kg6 14.Ba1 Ne7#, or 11...Kg5 12.Qf4 Kg6 13.Qh4 a1Q 14.Ba1 Ne7#] 12.Rf4 Kg5 13.Qh4 Kg6 14.Ba1 Ne7#

Animation here (for a previous version of the solution, improved thanks to @DanielMathias ' comments) :

gif of solution

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    $\begingroup$ 5.Qd2 Kf1 improves your solution, but black has another option: Rd2 Kg3 may delay the goal. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 28, 2021 at 21:15
  • $\begingroup$ Try 5.Bc3 to force all of black's moves. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 0:52

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