The Best and Most Difficult Chess Puzzles Ever

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TimmySongbird

All of these "puzzles" are easy. You just win.
Why doesn't it say in how many moves you have to give mate, or whose turn it is for that matter... I wasted the first one mating in 3 and then looking; turns out to be a mate in 2, WTF.

Not going to do the other puzzles, because none of them say how many moves.

Sack_o_Potatoes

 

 

Arisktotle
TimmySongbird wrote:

All of these "puzzles" are easy. You just win.
Why doesn't it say in how many moves you have to give mate, or whose turn it is for that matter... I wasted the first one mating in 3 and then looking; turns out to be a mate in 2, WTF.

Not going to do the other puzzles, because none of them say how many moves.

 

You are a longtime member so you could know the answer to that question. Chess.com has started the culture of not stating the goal of a puzzle. Often you just have to win but when you overlook a nearby mate you get penalized. Many puzzle posters have copied and extended that habit into places where it is completely ridiculous. So indeed, everyone should always state the goal but less than half the posters do it.

TimmySongbird
blueemu wrote:

White to play and FORCE Black to mate White.

What a wonderful puzzle...
Here is the SOLUTION (don't look if you haven't solved it yet).
Well, the solution is given with the puzzle, but I wanted to post the reasoning.
White should play as follows: every time black makes the distance smaller between the bishops, white should play the rook. And every time black makes the distance larger, white should play the bishop such that the distance becomes again what it was. This means that black can retreat to b7, but then has to make the distance smaller again. As soon as black makes the distance 0 squares, white moves the rook to h8. Subsequently white follows blacks bishop home with a distance of zero until black reaches b7 and white plays Bc6, at which point black is forced to take the bishop and mate white. However, there is a problem (it isn't as simple as this!): if black makes the distance 1 then white must move the rook to c8! This is necessary because otherwise white can't "follow" the black bishop at that same distance of 1 square all the way to c6: namely as soon as the rook is on the column of the bishop or on the right of that (but not on h8) then black can take the white bishop without giving mate (white has to take the black bishop, or put the rook in between). Thus, white can only follow the black bishop home (b7) at a distance of 1 when the rook is on c8. That, in turn means that the rook may NOT be on c8 when the distance between the bishops is larger than 1 square. For the same reason white may not play the rook to h8 when the distance isn't zero: if white plays Rh8 when the distance isn't already zero then black will immediately make that distance zero himself. The above then means that as soon as black makes the distance between the bishops 2 squares, then white has to play the rook to d8! Because he may not go to c8 (keeping that free for when the distance becomes 1) and not to h8 (keeping that free for when the distance becomes zero) and he can't go e8, f8 or g8 because then he won't be able to follow black home at a distance of two. The same reasoning holds for distance 3: Re8 must be played, and distance 4 (the starting position): Rf8 must be played.

 

Thus, in summary: if black makes the distance shorter, namely with N free square between the bishops, then black must play: N=0: Rh8, N=1: Rc8, N=2: Rd8, N=3: Re8, N=4: Rf8. And if black makes the distance shorter, then play the bishop in order to keep the distance the same, which will now always be possible due to the position of the rook without that black can take the bishop.

Likewise, if white makes a mistake, then black wants to reach the same positions but with it being whites turn: if the white rook is on h8, c8, d8, e8, f8 or g8, black wants to make the distance between the bishops 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. Now you might think that therefore white can always win, even after making a mistake: a distance of 5 is not possible. So, white can just play the bishop to g2 and then the rook to g8 and then no matter what black does, he matches the distance with the rook, right? Nope - as soon as he plays Rg8 black will capture whites bishop! 

 

Cute_Eugene

 

mantine73

The last puzzle had 2 solutions

BethHarmonFriend
This is a very hard puzzle

 

BethHarmonFriend

 

BethHarmonFriend

 

PizzaMitKnoblauch

Puzzle 1:

Variation 1: f7 - g4 // f8=B+ - Kxh5 // Rxh7#

Variation 2: f7 - Kxh5 // Rxh7#

Variation 3: f7 - Kg7 // f8=Q#

Puzzle 2 to 4 are jokes...

 

Arisktotle
PizzaMitKnoblauch wrote:

Puzzle 1:

Variation 1: f7 - g4 // f8=B+ - Kxh5 // Rxh7#

Variation 2: f7 - Kxh5 // Rxh7#

Variation 3: f7 - Kg7 // f8=Q#

Puzzle 2 to 4 are jokes...

 

Puzzle 1: The author assumes you should find the fastest checkmate which is in 2 moves. Your solution is 3 moves.

Puzzle 2: Again you must find the fastest checkmate which is in 3 moves. No joke involved.

Puzzle 4: Is a weird assignment but not a joke. A puzzle is only considered a joke when it violates the rules of chess. I do recall however there is more than one solution which makes the puzzle flawed. But still not a joke.

PizzaMitKnoblauch
Arisktotle hat geschrieben:Puzzle 1: The author assumes you should find the fastest checkmate which is in 2 moves. Your solution is 3 moves.

Seriously?! En passant? Again one of these useless idiotic ones? I am out. I thought at least the first one was a decent puzzle while as a matter of fact all of them suck.

Duck

This forum is so old meh.png

PizzaMitKnoblauch
ScatteredWealth hat geschrieben:

This forum is so old

Well... there is nothing exciting going on here. I hoped there would be some more activity with interesting questions :/

bryanc1120

very hard puzzles nice!

 

HatsuzukiMeiso

Bodo van Dehn

Lolz infestation grin.png

EvinSung

 

Ww_DUCK_wW
Psicojova

Wow

Irongine

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/more-puzzles/major-piece-melee-hard-puzzleThis is a puzzle I composed, which I think will fit here. Despite the rather cramped nature, you might find yourself guessing for the solution.