Mate in weird number of moves

That works too, as I pointed out. Good job for finding it!

Correct! you're actually the first to solve it, so good job!

I will post new puzzles later today! stay tuned.

If you like these trick puzzles there's a great book by logician Raymond Smullyan called The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes

http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Mysteries-Sherlock-Holmes-Recreational/dp/0486482014/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346257856&sr=1-7&keywords=raymond+smullyan#_

Ah ok my mistake

I highly recommend this book. However it is of a completely different genre, mainly retro analysis. What I did here is mainly joke mate puzzles (though I did insert some retro analysis in the last puzzle )

New puzzles

7# mate in -0.5 moves

8# Mate in -0.5 moves

9# Mate in -0.5 moves

#10 Mate in -1 moves

#11 Mate in -1 moves

#12 Mate in -1 move for each side! black first, then white!

New puzzles up for solving!

10: bxc5

7: exf5 undo just the taking not the movement so its .5 of a move

8: exd5 undo just the movement not the taking so its just .5 of a move

11 is impossible, white is in check by a knight and since the knight is there now the knight cant be taken so the king must be moved.  There are no discoverys with the king so any king move cannot give check much less checkmate. if white was not in check I would say undo Rxd7

#9: Be3

anacondaz for nine it has to be half a move bakc, thats a whole move

got 12! tough one: undo Rd5xQ on d8 then for whites move undo Bd6-a3

sorry anacondaz was actually right it is Be3 undoing Bxf4 without putting the peice back making it half of a move

Congratulations crimsonaaron for solving puzzles 7#, 8# and 10#! Of course, you mean en passant for all of them and not just regular captures.

In regards to #9, retracting Be3xf4 withought the captured piece is correct, but what piece did the bishop capture? Also, there is a second (trickier) solution to that puzzle, see if you can find it!

In regards to #11, you're absolutely right it was impossible. I didn't notice white was in check  Fixed now. Can you solve it?

In regards to #12, I absolutely love your solution! It is however, unintended because of an oops by my side again. White has 7 pawns on the board currently yet I intended him to have 8, in which case having an extra queen on d8 would have been impossible.

Still a great solution. So, can you find the other solution possible?

yes i meant the en passants :) for 9 it was a pawn that was captured all others could take/block queen making it not mate

for 11: undo Rd6xd7 the peice that taken is a knight

alternate solution to 12? hm... assuming creation of white peice due to undoing takes? im stumped for now i'll have to get back to you on that one

I dont see the trickier solution to 9 either, but I will keep looking :)

my logic for 12: since there are supposed to be 8 white pawns on the board, no white peices have been taken and as a resulted none can be created by undoing captures. creating black peices only have 3 purposes; getting rid of pin problems, cutting off escapes for the king, and blacking another black peice. there are no white peices around the black king so it cant be used to cut off escapes.  the only pin is the queen to the king but the white queen can only check by going to a6 if the bishop had been the move which was undone and this doesn't work. the last option can only be done with whites 3 pawns up front due to peice positioning and the only undoing of a pawn take move that would cause even check is d5xe5 which does not work because the bishop can be blocked and there are escape squares for the king. in summary so far: no peices were taken so it is just moving around the peices already on the board. Next the king did not come from d7 because it cant be in check by two pawns at the same time and undoing either pawn does not work. It did not come from c7  because no peice can cover c7 c8 and b8 besides a queen up close which can't happen. likewise for king from b8. So the king is not one of the mo

moves. Since the king doesn't move and no peices are created one of the peices moved has to be able to check as if it were a normal game starting here. Those peices are Na4, Rh8, and Bh3. Na4: it can only check by going to b6 which is guarded by a bishop which means for this one to work the bishop would have to be moved.  This does not result in checkmate. Bh3: in order to check with this peice a e6 pawn move would have to be undone but then the queen and rook would still be able to block.  This leaves just Rh8.  In order for Rh8 to give check/checkmate the rook on d8 would have to have been moved there.  In order for it be checkmate it would then also have to be blocked from going back.  This can only be done if the rook came from d5 and the bishop on a3 came from d6. This however is not mate because the rook on f3 can still block..... So where did I screw up? :/ by logic I just stated if there were 8 pawns like you meant it then it would be impossible so I am stumped.