Is this position legal?

No,  the Russian’s position is illegal. Translate what I said to him.

Only needs 14 captures.

Oof.

This was a good one! And nice job Trexler!

Here’s a much faster solution in 41 moves. May the race the fastest way began! 

Legal#The black pawn is missing and the structure allowd for it to be promoted and moved to a1. The white e1 pawn promoted to a dark-squared bishop.  How? Well it captured both black knights and the black queen to get to the c-file to promte-the only open file for it to do so on-and then captured the a1 black rook to promote to a dark square bishop. It then moved out. Thus this position is legal.

Just to clarify,  the black pawn captured both white knights to march around the c-pawn.

I’ve managed to shave off 1 move so far. 

I can’t seem to get it beyond 40 moves. Can anyone find faster or prove that  40.5 is optimal?

40.5: 39...Kf8 instead of 39...Ke8, and 40...Ke8.

That wouldn’t work. The white dark-squared bishop still needs to get to it’s sqaure.

I decided to rearrange the move order to get less pawn moves, and I found a sweet 38!

#1679 Браво! Отличная работа!

#1667 Отлично

Какое самое быстрое решение этой позиции?

Спасибо! Что касается # 1682, то здесь невероятные 24 хода!

What the heck is that supposed to mean?