The Beauty of Miniature Chess Puzzles!

I checked the problem with my computer and it seems sound, though maybe harder than I thought when composing it. I'll give a hint below in white text if someone wants a bit of guidance.

Hint: Are you sure that the pawn must be shepherded to g2?

C+

One of my older compositions:

                                 White mates in 4

Congrats,Uncia_Uncia!The main variation is very good and not so easy to
solve.But...(there is a but!) variation 1...d6 is in five moves and move 4
(waiting  move)is not unique(dual). I hope you will fix that!

Adrian,don't forget, this is a thread about miniatures,so I transformed your
meredith into a miniature!,

"winterberger wrote:

Congrats, Uncia_Uncia! The main variation is very good and not so easy to solve. But...(there is a but!) variation 1...d6 is in five moves and move 4(waiting move)is not unique(dual). I hope you will fix that!"

I think the dual can be removed. Have to look into that. But is the short variation otherwise a big flaw? It is a result of poor defending by black (falling into the threat that the key creates). And black is still forced to checkmate white in no more than 6 moves.

Usually, duals in lines where black does not defend the threat are of no concern. But is there truly a white threat, or is he using zugzwang?

@Remellion - really an amazing puzzle. In my tries, I promoted the pawn to a queen and tried to drive the King to c3 since it is obvious that the mate will come to c2 but then I fail everytime I try to make a check at c2 forcing the b3 pawn to capture but a2 suddenly becomes available for the White King! 

@ Uncia_Uncia - have you composed that one yourself? Solving such type of problem is a tough one, but creating such problem is I think harder than solving. You deserve compliment for that! Is there any way or pattern for the composer to create selfmate problems?

Nb1-c3 and Bd6#.

@BigDoggProblem: I think there is a threat brought by the key:

If g4 was guarded by another piece besides the knight on e3, the problem would be a selfmate in 5 with key 1. Nd5. The actual key threatens 2. Nd5 and the rest of that sequence. With 1. ... d6, black ignores the threat and the short, 5-move variation arises.

@aurelcablayan: Yes, I did compose that. I had an idea I wanted to realize, a selfmate where a black pawn makes all 8 possible moves in the solution (two steps forward, one step forward, left capture, right capture (Pickaninny) and the 4 promotions (Allumwandlung)). So starting from the almost final position (s#2) I pulled back the black pawn towards the starting square keeping both kings in a tight leash. The leap from d5 to d7 was the most difficult one. After that there were some unnecessary pieces that were left out.

Technically, that does not count as a threat. A threat must bring doom even if black could pass his turn. Your problem works via zugzwang.

"BigDoggProblem wrote:

Technically, that does not count as a threat. A threat must bring doom even if black could pass his turn. Your problem works via zugzwang."

But does it not bring doom even if black could pass his (first) turn: 1. Qe2 pass 2. Nd5 d6 (forced) 3. wait dxe5 4. Nf4+ exf4 5. wait f3 6. Qg2+ fxg2#

Edit: The threat is to put black into Zugzwang with 2. Nd5. After that there are no threats and the problem works with Zugzwang. The fact that there are two waiting moves for white in this line is a bit problematic. But 1. ... d5 still defends against the above line as it makes Nd5 impossible.

But I may be totally wrong.

In (almost) all selfmates, if Black can pass his turn you don't get mate. Also, White himself cannot pass his turn obviously.

EDIT: I forgot selfmates that work by checking Black's king, thus "almost".

Technically, you are right. Aesthetically, it still feels like a zug problem because the threat relies on black being in zugzwang on move 2 onward.

Given that there has been a Babson in a s# a long time ago, a problem with duals in the threat is probably not of much interest except as an exercise in learning to make selfmates.

H.W. Bettmann, 1926

s#3

s# is the genre I know the least about, but I am hesitant to agree with 'almost'. There are some very difficult selfmates (Google "Camillo Gamnitzer selfmate") that employ quiet keys with subtle, full-length threats.

Let's get back into business. Another orthodox puzzle to ponder upon.