I'm not a chess player, but I have a couple of questions.

Hello everyone,

I'm working on a couple of puzzles which are chess based. I have absolutely run out of ideas. I was wondering if anyone might be able to help. 

I have this picture, and I need a word as an answer. I was thinking it might be a recognizable set up or defense. Any ideas at all would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

donut

black to move 

1........Re1

2.Re1  Re1 mate

Thanks ABC,

The puzzle does say black to move, the only hint I have is ! 

I tried Re1 and Re1 mate.

Neither worked, but thanks 

This is the second puzzle. I also need a word as an answer. The puzzle says white to move and the only hint I have is !!

Thanks again for any ideas

Rfxf7+ Kh8 Rxh7#

Thanks Strangemover,

Is that the moves from the second picture?

Yes. Looks like ABC suggestion for the first should be correct. 

Thanks for the help!

The second puzzle....I see the moves listed by Strangemover. I do have a question. I understand that ! denotes a good move, and !! denotes an extraordinary move. Since my hint is "EVIL" and !!, are there any other possible plays that would be considered extraordinary?

In the second puzzle there is also Qxg6 Kh8 Qg8#. Possibly Qxg6 is more worthy of a !! than Rfxf7+. 

What's the context of the puzzle, and how old is the source?  I ask because that may affect what form the answer takes.  For example, in descriptive notation, the move in first puzzle (Re1) would be "Rook to King Eight"' or also as "Rook King Eight."  From that you can get the words "rooking" or "ate" pretty easily. 

For the second puzzle, one of the ways to say "Qxg6" is "Queen takes Knight's pawn" from which you could get "night spawn."

I don't know if that helps, but you can at least get words that way.

After banging around on the two puzzles, I was able to figure out the "word" I needed. Much thanks to all who helped. 

After trying many possible answers for puzzle number two, and knowing he is only looking for one move (Rfxf7+ and Qxg6+ were not correct), I asked for a hint. This is what he sent me. He is a great guy, and trying to get me to see something, but I'm just not getting it. Any ideas?

"

Rfxf7+ is probably what I'd play, and it's what the chess engine I used to test the puzzles and make sure I hadn't overlooked something recommended me. But for the evil puzzle I wanted something you couldn't just use an engine to tell you the right answer. So I used this puzzle, which no engine will be able to solve correctly without more info than is provided. But of course, you have to figure out what information you don't have that you need to solve the puzzle. If you had it, the answer would appear in seconds to an experienced chess player.

 

I will also say that if you had fewer you problems, you'd be closer to solving the puzzle. "

 

This is a bit out of my league, and I could use any ideas you might have. 

Thanks!

Black has just played ...e5 and the answer is dxe6 en passant (checkmate)

The second problem is a "trick" mate-in-1 problem purportedly solved by a special move in chess called en passant. So the solution is "1.dxe6 e.p." For the solution word, if that or simply "dxe6" doesn't work, try "en passant" or "enpassant".

Heck yeah!!

I think I'm learning a little about chess. The answer was found. I thought it was the pawn, but I kept using the +, then the ++. 

Thanks to everyone who helped. I am sure I could not have gotten where I did without your help. Looking forward to maybe playing one day (way, way off in the future). Lol

for the first puzzle:

black: Re1

white: Rxe1

black: Rxe1#