Can you solve this difficult checkmate?

@magipi, @EndgameEnthusiast2357: I wonder how you guys can come to any evaluation of the site problems based on (a) an absolute joke problem (b) an insignificant variation on the joke problem by a member who in no way represents the "site". You all know that these forums are used as waste dump by at least 50% of the posters. What else is new?

mate in one kxg7 is checkmate

From doing hundreds of puzzles on the site. I may have mistakenly reported 2 or 3 of them where I didn't realize why my solution didn't work until after, but another 2 or 3 I was certain of the solution and obviously the person who posted it didn't think far enough ahead. Examples included certain king + 2 pawns vs knight winning endgames where the move didn't have to be exact, or at worst, not being exact extended the minimum number of moves required by 1 or 2. The loss of so many points cause you didn't solve it with computer level accuracy even though you got the winning method easily correct.

That's interesting since my experience is closer to what @magipi reports. Some years ago I solved many chess.com puzzles and they almost always appeared OK to me. Assuming you know the quirky chess.com rules:

• Do not expect the best defense
• It will not require you to find a move which is not at least 2 points better than the second best. But the second best move might also win and you are penalized when playing it.
• it will also require you to find a fast checkmate before all alternatives.

Besides that, any complaints?

99.8% of them are fine, but I'm not talking about winning a queen vs forced mate, I'm talking more along the lines of forcing a pawn promotion and it being picky on the exact squares you move your king to, when both equally force the pawn promotion.

suprisingly easy

I suspect it depends on the puzzle type. Chess.com has a lot of different puzzle modules, sometimes wrapped up in courses (e.g. "Pervakov's endgame studies"). I suspect that some are treated with less care when they are for "teaching" (where learning the lessons has priority) and with more care when they are for a competitive puzzle rating list! I used to do "Puzzle Rush Survival" and a general timed tactics challenge. Not many pawn promotions and king walks in those anyway.

Asking for a hint shouldn't be equivalent to getting it wrong. Otherwise what's the point of having the option?

HInts do not exist in standard puzzles - they are just solution moves by lack of something better. Real hints in chess.com only exist in: "lessons" typically a place where I expect scores of errors. I doubt that the "puzzles" in the lessons and courses are even checked by engines. That would only mess up the course which tries to get a particular concept across and is uninterested in the objective truth. And puzzle ratings don't matter at all there.

Obviously not, as there's no way I'm a 3200 level puzzle solver lol

When I did Puzzle Rush Survival my scores were very similar to those of Hikaru. With one difference. He spent 20 seconds per puzzle, poor me 20 minutes