Mate in 2 - trickier than it looks...

OK, here is one I set up for my son to work out last night, from Laszlo Polgar's wonderfully titled "Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games". And it had us both stumped. He went to bed, and I continued to be stumped - every option I looked at had one small flaw. Finally, I got there - perhaps you will do better.

Note, kudos will be given for showing analysis of multiple variations, showing all of the moves that don't work, as well as the ones that do!

Good luck...

nice puzzle, couldn't solve it.

Took me a few minutes but got it. Very nice puzzle!!

I foolishly went for Na7+. Silly me...

thats rather nice, but in a timed match I woulda gone with the mate in 3 I saw right away with 1.QxB...b7 forced (any other move leads to a back rank mate). now 2.Qh7!*or e7*(both keeping the king on the back rank and putting ALL his pieces in zugzwang!!! 2...Ra8 (any other move leads to back rank mate.) Qc8#

In short, this mate in two may be pretty, but inefficient in timed matches where it's not worth looking for something better than the obvious mate in 3. sorry bro ;)

Still on a lighter note, it was a rather nice coop with queen and knight.

It took me a few minutes, but I got it.  I thought about Qh2, but after ...Bd8 I didn't see Na7.  Once I actually did Qh2, I got the knight move, though.  Great problem!

only one minute..

very nice puzzle.. thank u

 here goes hixh6,wrong,h1xd5,wrong,hixh2,right.black only had limited moves,pawn, bishop or king,pawn move was not defensive,elliminated that move,looked like best defensive move was bishop,took chance with h1xh2,black moved bishop as i anticipated,opened door for qieen mate,very,very,very, good puzzle,post more buddy,i will certainlytry to solve as i have with E-eko,s puzzles.i,m eager to have fun with chess,win loose or draw a chess game to me is opportunity to pick up some knowledge.i plan on paying ransome next month to take advantage of all CHESS.COM,S OPTIONS therefore i,m hoping to learn as much as i can thanks for puzzle!!!!!!!

Nice work everyone - Frezco, good work on the main line. Here are some other sidelines that we looked at, that didn't work, before I finally got to Qh2.

What I liked about this puzzle is that it is pared down the the minimum, with all of the pieces having a pupose. Sometimes the bishop blocks a potential mate, sometimes the pawn or rook moves to allow an extra escape square, etc. Also, as is often the case with the best constructed mate in 2 puzzles, the first move is not check, and black has quite a few options, but it still leads to mate. Very neat and tidy.

White_Knight - quite so, taking the bishop is the most practical way of winning if the mating combo does not show itself immediately. That, though, is a significant difference between competitive games, and leisurely, constructed, puzzles - the challenges are different, and both highly satisifying in their own way.

Thanks for the posts - I will try to find the puzzle next to this one, that also had us guessing for a while - I'll just have to trawl through the 5333 other puzzles to find it!

whoooo....wow this is great...

I love these weird puzzles you're posting.

It's funny you say the other one is easier, but I guess it all depends on what we have seen in our own chess practice.

I honestly took about 10 seconds to get this one, but the other one you posted (that you said was easier!!) I couldn't get it at all?? I got frustrated and just started trying different attacks until I got that one.

The mate works, but I'm not convinced about the co-ordinates.

I think you move the gardener to f12!