Best UnderPromotion Endgame Compilation

I am disappointed but not surprised! That was the risky one! The first 5R promo version stands a much better chance! Also it has promising alternatives like moving (bPa2, wRa1) to (bPe2, wRe1).

I'll take a look at that one now.

Here is what I have on the first one:

That looks much better! 1. ... Rd3! is the best defense forcing the 5R promo's. Btw, this version has a big plus over the original (besides 5 promo's over 4) in that the stalemate trap after 4. e8=Q? is only sprung after the zwischenzug 4. ... Ra3! 5. a8=R Re3!

I think the second version is repairable by moving the wK but more testing to be done. Best is to leave no unprovided check in the diagram!

Here's a underpromotion to get the mate in 7, if you promote to Queen then it's a mate in 8:

No offense, but I am actually most interested in underpromotions that directly change the result of the game, from losses to draws or draws to wins, not if they accomplish it a few moves faster. Anyone attempt that adding the knight challenge yet in that earlier puzzle?

That's OK but that is the exact distinction between directmates and endgame studies. Many chess players prefer endgame studies as they are more gamelike. Generally it is easier to achieve the same themes in directmates where the move countdown hands more controls to the composer. Then again, the bar is set much higher for directmates. What are the chances that anyone will ever achieve a Babson task in an endgame study? Your chosen name ËndgameEnthousiast discloses your preference. I am too more of an endgame lover but I am very adaptive! Once you are member of a problemist club you discover there are a few main categories: (a) orthodox directmates and similar stipulations like selfmate and helpmate (b) endgame studies (c) fairies with deviant rules (d) retrograde problems. Though there are many omnivores in the problemist community, almost everyone has 1 or 2 favorite categories! For solving and/or composing.

Btw, standard solving tournaments feature the categories (a) and (b) with the emphasis on (a). You won't get away with just one taste

Check this one out:

Charming ending! Seen it before but that's no harm.

That's nice. Didn't realize there were so many examples of bishop underpromotion, thought it was the rarest Lol

Here's another nice one from drdos7 with 2 bishop underpromotions in the "More Puzzles" forum:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/more-puzzles/mates-that-are-difficult-for-engines?page=12#comment-87270327

Actually this is where I meant to post it, I accidentally posted it in the wrong thread.

So here goes, how about a Double Bishop underpromotion to save the draw for white:

Here is one where the underpromoted piece depends entirely on what Black plays after White's first move. The underpromotions all occur on the same square, incidentally this study was published the year after Lommer's famous Allumwandlung (omnipromotion) study.

Here is another beauty where white must underpromote to a Rook on his 5th move in order to secure the draw:

The challenge to add a black knight into blacks position here is still open with 100 trophies guaranteed. But it can't be a trivial capture, the knight has to be one of the pieces locked into the black position that doesn't affect the sequence of the puzzle. You can even rearrange the pieces, but the concept of a queen or other piece shuffling back and forth while white delivers checkmate with the knight, timed so that the piece isn't defending the mating square, must be the same.

I imagine there might be sort of a 2nd prize when you can achieve it with some black pawns converted to caged promotion pieces. Not ideal but still with all 16 black units surviving in the proof game. I say this because I consider it unlikely that a solution without black promotions exists or it would have been found by now

If black could have a 9th pawn, it would be possible to squeeze the 2nd knight in there!

This one that you modeled after Afek's looks pretty good also.

Post #103 shows that the 2nd black knight can be added with 1 extra pawn included, but the challenge is to be able to do this with only 8 pawns, so that the position is legal.

Might as well make this problem fully grotesque!