Shortest-proof-game challenge

54.5

52.5. I'll let someone else figure out if there's a move or two shorter possible.

Managed to do it in 49.5. I was stuck on 50.5 moves and knew I could optimise it further by one move. It wasn’t easy, but with tight manoeuvres it is possible. I don’t think it can get shorter than this though.

Good work.

I was hoping to get this several moves longer than my previous one, but looks like it's only a half-move more, and that only due to the check.

The "gate" to the area behind the pawns is more "open" in this one, which completely offsets any gains from stuffing more heavy pieces in behind the pawns.

The awkward white Rook permanently shut in behind the pawns worked wonders in the previous one.

#6929

*pants*

FEN: 8/4pppp/8/8/8/PkPp4/1PpPPPP1/RqKB4 w - - 0 1

we're so close to the number

A proof game in 28

Here's a proof game in 10 moves with a unique solution I created almost 30 years ago.

Check out my new blog about proof games that show a paradoxical theme. Name of blog is a spoiler for the above diagram!

I'm surprised I got this so fast.

One of my first proof games on this thread uses this exact theme.

Good job in solving mine quickly! Is yours a unique game and how many moves?

It is a unique game in 8 moves.

Great! Took me a while despite knowing the theme. At first I tried to solve it without a knight-switch and found this solution in 7.5 moves. (Not sure if this had been discussed previously; with 300+ posts in this thread I couldn't find the earlier mention.)

The sequence above is apparently unique too, and also quite different from the 8.0 solution, so I think it's worthwhile to set it as a 2-part problem. The 8.0 move game is:

Very nice!

Is there a unique 8.5 solution to #6940?

Hi