Mate in Two

Here's an easy one to start us off. White to mate in two.

Very nice, I got stuck for a while on Qb5.

Here's one of my first attempts, it works, but I couldn't get the white King involved, just a bystander... Also mate in 2

In a later version, I managed to find a job for the King:

Ah yes, I think you've posted this before. It's a good one. I messed around a little bit trying to find ways to use the King, but I didn't see anything.

By the way, I feel like I used way too many pieces in mine. Does anyone see a way to make it more efficient?

Ah, very very clever change! I never would have thought of that. I was fooling around with the King on c6 and the light-squared Bishop gone, but there was always an extra solution no matter what other changes I made.

Reminds me of puzzle #31 in Marache's Manual of Chess

http://books.google.com/books?id=S3IZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121

Here's a light one...

That's pretty good....

Hi

The key is "piece-saving"... the Bishop was under attack.

Moreover, the Queen can't move due to Ba6-d3+ and the Rook can't do much either. The King can't move either due to checks. The key move is pretty much forced. :-)

Yes, I'm afraid I'm still very much a novice. I guess that's what this group is for, though! Criticism on my other compositions would be much appreciated, by the way - I didn't even realize that piece-saving moves were undesirable and I need to figure out what to avoid the next time I try to compose something.

OK, how is this one? I feel pretty good about it. I know that the construction makes the key move a little easier to see, but I still think it's better than my others. Make sure to check the other lines in the movelist.

I like it, but I still think you need to solve more #2s ;-)

One minor point... the Rook could start out on e4 too - then the key move would be "flight giving"... g4 is no longer covered, so the King gains one extra square... yet he is captured on  move two.

I don't know enough myself for giving more comprehensive feedback

Oh, that's a very good idea - thank you! I'd been fretting that the key was too obvious because there weren't any other simple ways to prevent Kg4, and your idea does the trick perfectly! I've been looking around at some mates in two, but I've only attempted to solve the ones that appealed to me.

I just made a mate in two as a joke. The key is easy, but look at the variations to see what the joke is! Yes, I know promoted pieces are bad, but this isn't intended as a serious composition. I wonder if something like this has appeared elsewhere?

This is my first puzzle for ages..

Enjoy! This is quite easy to solve anyways.

This is a mate.

No.

I was looking through some old threads. I'd forgotten about this.

White to mate in two, after tonydal at http://www.chess.com/forum/view/more-puzzles/mate-in-24