Nalimov's #4

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Avatar of David_Spencer

Just messing around with the Nalimov tables, you occasionally run into neat mates. For example, here's a mate in four, with a small edit to make the solution unique

. Hopefully, my change doesn't add a different solution (I don't believe it does).

Avatar of rooperi

Well, sirDavid, I have to confess instead of trying to solve your problem, I immediately tested it for alternate solutions. You'll be happy to know it came up clean.

Just one thing, the 2 pawns could be replaced by a single Black pawn on g5.

Interestingly, Replacing with a white pawn on g5 gives a different solution:

Avatar of David_Spencer

"I immediately tested it for alternate solutions. You'll be happy to know it came up clean." Haha, thanks Tongue out

Cool. Thanks! If I find any other interesting mates soon through Nalimov, I'll just post on this thread.

By the way, have you found an online table with 5 vs 1? The one I use doesn't have 5v1, so I couldn't try putting a White pawn on g5.

Avatar of rooperi
SirDavid wrote:

By the way, have you found an online table with 5 vs 1? The one I use doesn't have 5v1, so I couldn't try putting a White pawn on g5.


Nope, don't know of any. I use Problemiste to check for flaws, cooks etc.

Avatar of David_Spencer

Here's another one. White to mate in two.

Avatar of Loomis

In the first puzzle, I solved it, but only because I knew you used a tablebase when generating it. Since the puzzle starts with 7 pieces on the board I immediately looked at the obvious way to get to 6 pieces which is 1. Nf2.

Avatar of Loomis

The second puzzle was trickier. The first thing I noticed is that 1. ... Kc3 2. Rc2# (or 2. Ra3#) is mate. So I wondered if I can force 1. ... Kc3. But the only way to do this is with the bishop giving up control of the c2 square or the king giving up control of b4, which ruins both mates. So then I figured I have to find a way to mate after 1. ... Ke4.