Is this position legal?

The diagram is not legal - black has to make all the captures, needs 8 captures, and white's only missing 7 units.

-Ph2 is legal.

illlegal

looks like it should be legal, but really tricky to do

chesssmart82 and TW2000, trivially legal.

Legal or not not legal or not legal or YOU DONT'know or if it's legal,show   a game to this postion

choose a level:

1.easy

2.medium

3.difficult

4.impossible

5.you would never know

6.Super easy

Pc3 came from b2 and Pe3 came from f2. So where did Pd4 come from? Nowhere, so the position is illegal.

Flipping the board does not help - bK is in check from Pd7, and it cannot retract the check.

I rebooted an older position. Can white castle?

Sure!!

#278

Black rook sits on f3 and the g queen on b3. The white king moves g1-g2 while all the other queens get into position and when he's on g2 the rook moves to f8(discovered check), k-g1,q(b3) - g8

Neither white king or king's rook needs to move.

The black rook at a1 is from the b pawn which having taken once, retakes on b2 and takes the rook on a1. A black knight goes to c1. The black king moves to b1 and the white dark-squared bishop, having got out of the way, returns to its starting square by taking the knight on c1. I think that works.

^ Show me a proof game that white can castle. You may find a problem with what you just described, which is on the right track but too simple. Are you sure the knight goes to c1?

Trying to create a history of the game that allows white to castle...

I need to promote Pb7 to get a 3rd bR, probably via b2. I can take a Ba4 and Rb2 (the QR). How did bK get in there? He'll need a shield on c1 so wB can withdraw. We'll say he captured a bN. That should do it.

Hmm, but the bN can't withdraw via d3 - that's check. So it must be b3, which means I have to pull Pb3 back before Bc1 is home, which means white's dark B is promoted. Must have been the h-pawn. How did he get through? Hmm - I've got a couple wN's to sacrifice for a cross-capture. No problem.

White can castle.

P.S. I realize I didn't uncap wBc1. I can't be bothered to fix the PGN, so just pretend I did. :)

And completely accurate by BigDoggProblem as usual. Can't help but wonder if only retrocages pose any real challenge to experienced solvers. :P Which is a shame, since I like reasonably plausible-looking positions.

Since it posed a challenge for me (I kept on switching sides when I worked on this problem--"White can castle easily" "oh wait the king can't get in, there's the queen" "oh wait interpose the knight" "oh wait it checks White's king" and so on), clearly I'm not an experienced solver. :P

Yes, I was on a similar track as Gyryth, but got stuck with that knight check, and the last side I took was "White cannot castle" before deciding to move away for a while and returning to find the problem solved by BigDoggProblem.

I'll start sending the solutions by Message so that others can give these a try. These are good intro problems for the genre.