I cant figure out the first puzzle in this link!! king is trapped and mate coming up.. rook cannot check.

http://www.chessbase.com/puzzle/christmas2011/chr11-02.htm

anyone?

 You mean this one ? If it is, then guys there made some mistake -,))

Edit:

Ooops, there is castling on queen side, so that would be first move. Though, still no idea how to win actually.

white to move.. and white going up.. so must be a mistake by john nunn!

No, in fact it's easy.

Main idea is, to force black king into taking rook on h1, thus trapping it in forced zugzwang (moving pawn on g file. Rest of it appears to be quite easy.

how does rook get to h1? the king is stuck and mate next move.

Yes, 1.O-O-O is the first move. I have also figured out black's best defence. The finished game is in the form of a puzzle that I give below:

Clearly the puzzle is more interesting if the king doesn't take the pawn on g4. Mate in 15 if king takes g4, but mate in 18 if king doesn't take g4. With your configuration, the optimal mate is 14. Qd3 any 15. Qf1#.

ohhh wooow queenside castle...

facepalm.. been gonw from chess too long

when it comes to puzzels such as those how are we to know white can legally castle. We don't know if earlier white moved from e1 to d1 then back to d1. Main reason why I have problems with puzzelse involving special moves (castle, enpassant) etc.. cause I always have that one thought (maybe white can't castle ) I know it's retareded of me

A puzzle such as these though, it is the only move that does not lose, but I never even thought of the possibility of a queenside castle so its my fault.