Powerplay 26: Checkmate Challenge — essential knowledge
Checkmate. That's the aim of the game. There are numerous ways to checkmate the enemy king, but there are common patterns that recur over and over again, and having these at our mental fingertips is essential for when we want to finish the game.
Here's an unconventional test for your solving skills. The solution is below, but if you would like to take a crack at it first on a chess board of your own. Here, again, are the rules:
1) Place the following six pieces on an empty board on adjacent squares on the same rank:
Notice that each piece is assigned a letter — that's key!
2) Make a legal sequence of nine half-moves (White moves first) until you spell "MONEY" adjacent squares:
3) Note that the sequence must include the capture of either the white knight or the black pawn. But which?
Need a further hint? Here are a few tips courtesy our Study of the Month columnist Siegfried Hornecker:
First of all, there is a pawn in the line. As the diagram goes towards players and there are no special rules given for those cases, the initial position won't be on the 8th or 1st rank. Second, the position has a unique solution, meaning that it will utilize the full breadth of the board and also either the full height (why would it?) or, more likely, make use of one of two special rules: Pawn double step or pawn promotion. So it is likely that the initial position is on the 7th or 2nd rank.
As the full board might be utilized, it is a good idea to start checking for solutions with the arrangement of pieces on a7-f7, c7-h7, a2-f2 and c2-h2.
The solution doesn't grow on trees, but you can find it below. Last chance to solve it on your own! Meanwhile, here's a song that Magnus Carlsen likes:
If you want to work it out yourself, stop here!
first time I see this kind of a problem, very interesting
— Mr Conformista (@cnfrmstA) January 2, 2019
Thanks again to Joaquim Crusats of the Spanish Society of Chess Problemists (SEPA) for sending our readers this challenge.
