Look at all the king’s squares, and which it can move to.
Also, see which pieces can move without letting the king escape
Game-changing realization
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12 days ago
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That’s how I find mate in 1 in every mate in 1 puzzle.
Look at all the king’s squares, and which it can move to.
Also, see which pieces can move without letting the king escape
Look at all the king’s squares, and which it can move to.
Also, see which pieces can move without letting the king escape
While solving checkmate puzzles from the Polgar book, I noticed that I started counting the king’s escape squares every single time.
It seems obvious in retrospect, but it’s not something I’ve ever done before.
The king has at most eight squares he can move to. Five if he’s on the edge of the board. Three if he’s in the corner.
The queen takes away six squares if she’s next to the king, so most of the time you just need to look for the last two squares.
I’m finding mate a lot faster now and the only thing that changed is I started counting to eight.