6/1/2025 DPA

[Note: before I start, boards aren't working right now, so this analysis will not have any]

Here's what we can now in today's puzzle:

1. We are about to get checkmated by black

2. Most of the pieces, ours and blacks, are around blacks king

3. Material is equal

Looking at blacks checkmate threat, we can see that we have no way to truly stop it. This means every one of our moves has to be a check. We have three options for a check here, Qb8+, Qc8+, and Qd8+. Qd8+ fails to black taking Nxd8. Qb8+ looks more promising, but only if black takes with Nxb8, allowing us to play Nc7#. But if black plays Kxb8, we get a line that looks more like this:

1. Qb8+ Kxb8

2. Nc6+ Bxc6

3. Nf4 Ng5

4. Kf1 Nh3

5. Bxh3 Bb5+

6. Nd3 Bxd3+

So, that leaves us with only the option of Qc8+. Yet again, if black tries to block with the knight, we can play Nc7#. So what if black takes with the bishop? As we said earlier, we have to play only checks. We only have 1 check in this position, Nc7+. If black plays Kb8, we have two ways we can check. Starting with Na6 allows black to simply take the knight with their bishop. So we have to play Nc6+.

Yet again, we only have two checks. Nd8+ fails since black can take our knight. So what about a6+? Blacks king is forced to take the knight on c6. We don't have many pieces anyway, so it doesn't seem like we should lose our knight. But looking at the board, blacks king already has nowhere to move. So after we play b5, it ends up being checkmate. 

What if instead of 2....Kb8, black played 2....Kb7? In that case, we only have one check in each position, and since all blacks moves will be forced, we have checkmate after this line:

2....Kb7

3. a6+ Kb8

4. Nc6#