I think the first move can also be: c3 ...bxc3  etc.

A nice puzzle.

RedHot,

This is not a mate-in-four. A mate-in-four implies a forced checkmate within four moves, not a random set of four moves that just happens to end in checkmate. This means that for a puzzle to be a mate-in-four puzzle, the side to play has to be able to force a checkmate against best defense. In your puzzle, black does not play the best defense. The g8 rook can move on either move 1 or 2, the King can move to h7, etc. If you are going to try to make more mate-in-x puzzles, try all possible responses to your moves, and see if the side to play can still force checkmate in the given number of moves. Hope that helps!

TonightOnly