ke6 and then pawn promotes to queen?
Hardest Mate in 2 puzzle

There is two scenarios.
1st is black can castle. In that case, the black's last move must be e5. So we would play dxe6. If they castle, then b7is mate. Otherwise g8 is also mate

ke6 and then pawn promotes to queen?
It is almost right but what is black castles?
I showed
There is two scenarios.
1st is black can castle. In that case, the black's last move must be e5. So we would play dxe6. If they castle, then b7is mate. Otherwise g8 is also mate
This! If black can castle then by deduction the last move by black must be a pawn move, and it can't be e6-e5 since it would be putting white in check, so the only logical conclusion is e7-e5, making en passant legal.
The answer depends on the logical model applied to the diagram - not on the rules of chess. Models are required when information is missing which is available in an actual chess game. So we are only talking composition chess here - not chess games.
Composition chess offers additional conventions to resolve the information missing from the diagram - i.c. blacks right to castle and white's right to e.p.. Skipping the analysis, the current convention dictates that you split this assignment in 2 parts (histories):
- Black has castling right and white has e.p. right. White starts with 1. dxe6 e.p.!
- White has no right to play e.p. and black has no right to castle. White starts with 1. Ke6!
So the complete solution contains both parts. Note there is also a third possible history where white has the right to play e.p. and black has no right to castle which would support both solutions but that history is discarded by the conventions.
If you find the answer to this puzzle you will get 5 trophies