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I normally don't approve of takebacks, but...

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BigDoggProblem

...white can take back the move he just made and mate in 2.

I am withholding the composer's name for now.



chaotic_iak

Retract -1. b6xBa7 and forward play 1. bxa7 any 2. a8=R/Q#. Black cannot respond with 1... 0-0.

Pd6 and Pf6 clearly came from d7 and f7 respectively, so Pf3 came from b7 making four captures.

After retracting b6xBa7, Black's bishop on a7 must be promoted (because Black's original dark bishop never left f8). The closest available promotion squares are e1 and g1, each requiring six captures from a7. (a1 and c1 are blocked by Pb2 and Pd2, and b1/d1/f1/h1 are not dark squares.) That accounts for 10 of Black's captures. Adding to White's dark bishop on c1 that was captured at home, that's 11 captures, exactly everything.

But this means White's h-pawn must have promoted (it cannot be captured otherwise). White's g-pawn too, but it doesn't matter for this. Where did White's h-pawn promote? Clearly it didn't go past c7/e7/g7/h7. It couldn't have gone past a7/b7 either, since it takes too many captures to go there (five captures bring it to c7, not enough). Thus it went past d7 or f7, in which it made a contact check with the king and thus the king must have moved, disabling Black's castling.


This does seem familiar. Hmm...

chaotic_iak

Oh, right, I did saw it before here (number 32).