Error in Laszlo Polgar's Puzzle book?

Nope, no problem there. I can prove black can't castle.

The position is given as white to move. Therefore, black has already lost castling rights in that diagram. Why?

- White is to move, so black just moved. What was this move?
- Not with the pawn on h7 since pawns start the game on the 7th rank and never move backwards or sideways.
- So black moved the king or rook last.
- So the black king or the black rook has already moved, and in either case black has lost castling rights.

Yea, that's pretty straightforward. To me it looks like the hidden problem in this puzzle is to realize that black can't castle.

It's pretty cool to see old threads coming back to light, although it reminds me just how old this site is now and how old I am :/

Agreed, thanks for pointing that out!

i am having this book

I believe #1747 has an alternate solution, as follows:

New game
8/8/8/8/8/8/kPP5/1nQ1K2R w K - 0 1

Analysis by Stockfish 7 64 POPCNT:

1. +- (#2): 1.Kf2 Na3 2.Qa1#
2. +- (#2): 1.0-0 Nc3 2.Qa1#

Again, nope, no problem and no alternate solution. White cannot castle kingside.

How did the black king get to a2 from its starting square on e8?

- It can't have come by a3, since it would have been in check by the white pawn on b2 which never moved.
- Likewise, not by b3 because of the white pawn on c2.
- Therefore it must have passed through b1, c1, and d1 or d2.

Therefore at some point the white king must have moved to let the black king in, and white can no longer castle.

Wow, amazing!!!

My copy is missing page 539 (puzzles 2887-2892).  It has and extra page 559 instead.  Is there a way to get the missing page short of buying a new copy?

Assuming it doesn't impact a large number of printings, I'm sure someone could provide that

I'll have to look at my copies to see if they are missing those puzzles (haven't made it that far).

Thank you very much, Iofina.

Welcome, 

There are a few duplex solutions that are not listed.

612

712

724

And 4499 is just plain wrong.

Problems 3497 appears to be one of those cases where castling isn't allowed, but in that case one could use the same solution for 3496. 

Problem 3606 is given as Qe4, but I can find no response for Qe4, Qe4.  OTOH, Qe5, Be5, Ne2 appears to be checkmate.

I believe I found an alternate solution to 3699: Nf6, f6, Bf3

Problem 3776 includes Qg7, Ng7 but the diagram has the knight already at g7 (getting captured by the queen), besides which rh3 would be mate in two.