Stalemate in 10 Moves!!!

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haxo101

If you know anything about Sam Loyd, the greatest puzzle-maker in the history of America, you'll know that he's remembered not only for his mathematical teasers, but also for his highly original and no less entertaining chess curiosities. Many are puzzles themselves, but a few, like the highlight of this post, are based on some of the many amazing studies that he devised. One of the most incredible is his famous Ten-Move Stalemate, the shortest stalemate possible in chess. 

His chess puzzles are also very interesting. Here's two of them, the first easy and the second very difficult:

1) What's the smallest number of White pieces you need to add to the board below to mate Black?

2) What's White's fastest mate below?

For the record, the shortest stalemate in a serious game on record (that isn't just an obvious prearranged draw) is a 27-mover:

texaspete
Unless 1) is a trick question (e.g. zero - just put some pawns on; one - just add some Black pieces to crowd the king), it's difficult to look beyond 2 pieces (e.g. a Queen at c5 and another at e7)
haxo101
Answer to the first: (it's an impossible position, but still mate)

 

LaLiam
Thats not an impossible position. K-D6, e-E8, K-D5, eQ-E6.
texaspete

Can do 2 queens entirely legally: Qc5 and Qe7

Last few moves were e.g.
1. e8=Q Kc4 2. c8=Q+ Kd4 3. Qe7 Kd5 4. Qcc5#

But I suspect the answer is tricksier than this...

DPJETS15

i like the stalemate in 10 moves

haxo101

Loyd also made another problem, also easy but quite clever: In the same initial position (Black king on d5, White King on e1), place two rooks and a knight so that Black is mated.

tulljack

Haxo101:  That's a very nice 10 move stalemate.  But how do you know it's the shortest stalemate possible? 

ZlyphrrPlayz

first stalemate is very intresting! Thanks for postinghappy.png

gingerninja2003

 

14jcai

where can you get master games I ve heard master games could help you with chess I want some very high quality clearly annotated games with adequate comments.

 

haxo101

There are many possible solutions. Has anyone found the answer to the other one yet?

I need to also post one other puzzle by Loyd, a puzzle that I omitted before but one so famous that it would be wrong not to add it in. The puzzle is titled 'Exelsior'.

 

santabaldwin
tulljack wrote:

Haxo101:  That's a very nice 10 move stalemate.  But how do you know it's the shortest stalemate possible? 

I agree with tulljack, there could be a more sacrificial stalemate 

Arisktotle
haxo101 wrote:

Loyd also made another problem, also easy but quite clever: In the same initial position (Black king on d5, White King on e1), place two rooks and a knight so that Black is mated.

It's about time someone posted a reply to that one. No shame in missing it, the position is blatantly illegal!

 

UltimateCreatorofBob

That position doesn't make sense. 

Arisktotle

Just like your post?

CSGOKitzus
LaLiam hat geschrieben:
Thats not an impossible position. K-D6, e-E8, K-D5, eQ-E6.

WTF are you talking about???? HOOW?

JackRoach

Nice puzzles! Sadly I'm too much of a patzer to solve them.

nereeren

Legal answer for the first question.

VforMike
gingerninja2003 wrote:

What about kb6 ?