Mate in 102!

A puzzle from the 1890's by Dr O.T.Blathy. White to play and mate in 102! These problems have the same basic idea and once mastered they are easy to solve. 

I was preparing to post the excact same puzze right now;) Spooky:) Its a crazy puzzle

Triangulation!

That's just hilarious! Black is in a straight-jacket.

I DID IT!! WOOHOO

wow, weirdest pawn structure ever. god, black should have just resigned halfway through.

I lol'd when you move the white king and then occasionally the black king thinks he can sneak a step and forgets that the rook has his eye on him and the rook says 'HEY! Noooooo, go back!'  lol

FFS Old Lad, :-P

It's not very practical, I've only ever had this position once in a tournament game.

Nice puzzle, thanks,

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wow, long enough, thanks

OOOOOOH

" nimzovich wrote:

Good point, Loomis.

If it doesn't come up too often, it's probably not worth studying/learning, and one should just hope to work it out over the board.

Just like KBN vs K mates."

Right...because chess problems should be confined to the straightjacket of practicality. Screw artistry, creativity and challenge of solving; if it doesn't arise in one of my boring, drawish Petroff Defense games, I'm not looking at it and I don't want anyone else doing it either.

mate in 2

But why would white play Kxc8? Rxc8 would certainly stretch the game out further...

noob

Just noticed the Blathy position is illegal. Seems he didn't care about that very much. :P

Yes it is and no he didn't. If I recall right he had another mate in 292, also illegal; and another in 290, likewise illegal. Still, those are just 3 of his works, he had other legal ones.