My VERY difficult Mate in 2

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Avatar of benjamin8

I spent quite a while developing this problem. It is my first attempt at creating a really good puzzle.

White moves first and has to mate in 2. There is only one initial move which forces checkmate on the next move, regardless of what the opponent does.

Can you find the solution?

Avatar of notmtwain

Nicely done.

Avatar of BigDoggProblem

1.Ne4+ Kd7 2.b8N#

It's pretty obvious white must check; if he doesn't, then black will. The key move is obvious because it takes the troublesome d6 flight away from black's K.

Avatar of benjamin8

Perhaps I shouldn't have given black so many check threats.

Thanks for playing it to both of you! :)

Avatar of Prudentia

Fun problem.  :))  Keep up the artistic ideas!

Avatar of yucca

I like it - the first move was quite intuitive - the second less so.

Avatar of pfren

To be honest, I do not think this is difficult- quite the contrary.

Please notice too that ANY twomover problem that starts with a check is regarded as useless by problemists.

If you are really interested in Chess problem composition, please check this site:

http://www.ozproblems.com/problem-world

Avatar of yucca

So not difficult for an IM :)  For patzers like me difficult enough.

Avatar of justus_jep

This position is completely winning for white its not even worth bothering searching for a mate in 2. I loaded this into Stockfish and about 17 moves are winning in this position almost all of them are mates in seven moves. Even Kg4 is still winning for white. Haha. Laughing

Avatar of benjamin8

Isn't the player to move winning easily quite often in problems? :P

Avatar of awesomechess1729

I like this puzzle- but the main way that it is hard is that is misleads you by having there be so many good tactical possibilities in moves.

Avatar of awesomechess1729

I am moving Bb5, which looks like mate, but the puzzle does not count it as correct.

Avatar of yucca

Bb5 is also winning, but not as quickly because after 1. Ne4+ Kd7  then 2. Bb5 does allow the rook to block the check - so it's not mate in 2. As someone said there are a lot of winning moves for white here, but the puzzle specifies mate in 2.

Avatar of benjamin8

awesomechess1729, I think when you do find move 2 you'll see the main difficulty ;)

Avatar of Remellion

pfren is being a little harsh in phrasing ("useless"), but it's true that problemists don't like the key move being a check. (Or for that matter a capture.) Exceptions are rarely made, when the theme is just so beautiful, although if that were the case the composer would almost certainly have spent the extra time to make the key move subtle.

Nevertheless, the problem is sound (just not exactly elegant or difficult), which is in itself actually quite good for a first composition.

Avatar of NorthKoreanLad

That was really elegant

Avatar of awesomechess1729

Oh, I see the mate now. I usually don't think of underpromoting...

Avatar of bangalore2

It is, as Remellion said, a sound problem. He bashed my first problem to bits, so if he says it is sound, it's good with me!

Avatar of AlanZhang

got the 1st move on 2nd try! Money MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney MouthMoney Mouth

Avatar of awesomechess1729

How can I make my own chess problems? Can I do that on chess.com or do I have to use some type of software to create the puzzle and then add it to chess.com?