Tried a couple lines, but none of them worked out. Can't seem to find any other possibilities. This is a difficult puzzle indeed...
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U. Heinonen
Probleemblad 2008
Position after black's 21st move. Give the moves that led to the position.
This almost works so I suspect something along this line. The catch is that the King does not have to try to run and black can just try to queen
@FancyKnight.. You're close to getting it, but...
and @greg_champ.. you're simply out of track
Here's another one.
The following, although is a helpmate, but the fact that this puzzle has defeated Mikhail Botvinnik,Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov makes it very interesting.
A game begins with 1.e4
and ends on the fifth(5th) move with knight takes rook mate.Can you reconstruct the game?
Oh, ok.
@FancyKnight.. You almost got it.
You seem to have a good vision of tactics.
I would like you to find white's reply in the following lines.
I think I got it. It's surprising how many resources black has
The_Cosmologist wrote:
Here's another one.
The following, although is a helpmate, but the fact that this puzzle has defeated Mikhail Botvinnik,Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov makes it very interesting.
A game begins with 1.e4
and ends on the fifth(5th) move with knight takes rook mate.Can you reconstruct the game?
FancyKnight ha scritto:
I think I got it. It's surprising how many resources black has
Silman (an IM) wrote in his book that he found really difficult solve that, so I think it's unlikely that you solved it. If you did, howewer, conrgatulations, because it's really difficult and the N move is counter intuitive.
@BigDoggProblem.. Congratulations, you solved it.
Thanks for the backhanded compliment, but it's not that hard to find when you know for sure that the position after 3..Kd3 is a win, as well as being shown that Nf3 doesn't work.
Here's another one
The threat is Rh2, winning the f2 pawn with white's king cut off. Then Black will penetrate with his king via f5. Resistence seems hopeless. Having White to play can you save the game?
Don't think that computers would be of any help, they are of no use in such positions.
C'mon no one could find the answer?
Nb2!!, h2, Nd3, h1=Q, Nb4, Qc1+, Kb3 and Nc2+ (unavoidable) wins the queen 
thenextvanand wrote:
Nb2!!, h2, Nd3, h1=Q, Nb4, Qc1+, Kb3 and Nc2+ (unavoidable) wins the queen
The_Cosmologist wrote:
Here's another one
The threat is Rh2, winning the f2 pawn with white's king cut off. Then Black will penetrate with his king via f5. Resistence seems hopeless. Having White to play can you save the game?
Don't think that computers would be of any help, they are of no use in such positions.
I think I got it:
I want all of you to contribute to this thread and post the most difficult puzzles you have seen.The puzzles should be real, or even if it's a composition, at least it should be possible to occur in a real game.Positions having 16 white pieces and one black king or so are of no interest.
Here's a position that I recently came through.The book from which I saw it read:"Don't even think of solving this position! Just play it over and enjoy it's raw, lovely complexity."
The following position is White to move and win.It's a Pal Benko composition.I will post the solution soon.
The book in which I found this position also read:"Pal Benko's Endgame positions simply blow my mind.You can stare at them for months and never solve them." Of course,strong chess engines would get them easily.