Checkmate in six moves!

by Arne Kaehler
6/11/2020 – Stuart Rachels is not only a former chess prodigy and great writer, he also made some beautiful chess puzzles. We are happy to showcase four self-mate riddles which are worth looking at. They are creative in a way, that the white king has to be check-mated in as little moves as possible, on a certain square.
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Chess puzzles by Stuart Rachels

We recently had an interview with Rachels about his new book. He was kind enough to share some of his unique chess puzzles with us. They are construction tasks, and even if you aren't too big of a fan of such puzzles we highly recommend to look at them nonetheless. They are very creative!

Construct a chess game that ends in...

 
 

As you know you can move the pieces on each of the diagram boards and try to construct games that end in the way specified.

Construct a chess game that ends in...

 
 

In problem three the white king simply has to move to his queen's square and await a painful checkmate. In problem four, for a change, the black king will be checkmated in the corner. That he gets mated by the white king is indeed special.

Congratulations to any reader to find the solutions. These problems are very hard to solve!

Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.

Discuss

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mikalziane mikalziane 6/18/2020 02:05
About #1 one has to consider a bishop that would be promoted instead of the original Bc8. Promotion requires 5 moves so only h1 is possible. But then a pawn going to h1 hardly helps with all the issues to address so Bc8 goes to e4.
mikalziane mikalziane 6/18/2020 01:52
It would be interesting to see what reasonings can be made about those puzzles without of course too big spoilers. I have long been fascinated with the challenge to mix reasoning and computation in chess and other activities. Some conclusions have been made here already although some are tentative.

Obviously the white king needs 3 moves to reach b1 since castling quite out of the question. So there are only 3 other white moves. As already said the white rook a1 and bishop c1 as well as pawns a2 and b2 likely stay too even though this is not absolutely clear but it does not matter since one first looks for the simpler solutions. The c2 and d2 pawns must go or be taken as well as Nb1 and Qd1. Taking the Nb1 seems to fail as already explained so it must move once then be taken as two knight moves seems too expensive. Qb1 is hard to take so must move once (to e1 unless it is then taken). Unless the black Bc8 does all the job as in one close attempt that leaves a2 empty it seems that black have 3 forced moves b5 (or less likely b6) then Bb7 and Be4. It leaves them with 3 moves to help. I can’t believe I can’t find 3 white and 3 black moves which suggests my reasoning is wrong.
Is this correct and what other deductions can be made ?
mikalziane mikalziane 6/18/2020 12:43
Another close attempt that also only fails to 7. Qc2 is 1. c4 b5 2. Nc3 b4 3. Qa5 bxc3 4. Kd1 Bb7 5. Kc2 cd 6. Kb1 Be4+
Fritzpa Fritzpa 6/17/2020 03:16
Hi people,

Yes I think a stream would be fun

I guess we should wait a little so that people can have a good go. What about a week today Wednesday June 24th which is apparently a rest day in the Chessable Masters. I could do maybe an hour or so of them from 18-19 my time which is 17-18 GMT; 19-20 in Germany and the afternoon in different bits of the US. We could do these four and any others people bring. Have you seen the list by Francois Labelle at https://wismuth.com/chess/moves-article.html

the stream will be at twitch.tv/jonspeelman
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 6/17/2020 01:59
brelenat: yes, it is possible with legal moves. Read the comments, there is a hint somewhere.
brelenat brelenat 6/17/2020 04:16
Hi GM Speelman, go ahead with the stream, please!
brelenat brelenat 6/17/2020 04:09
Mikalziane,
7- Qc2, not mate...
My answer is: Is it possible with ilegal moves?
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 6/16/2020 04:23
I got nr 1 at last! Don't know I feel like trying the rest...
mikalziane mikalziane 6/16/2020 02:49
close but no cigar. 1. c4 b5 2. d4 bxc 3. Kd2 Bb7. 4. Kc2 c3 5. Nd2 cxd 6 Kb1 Be4+ but not quite mate.
Fritzpa Fritzpa 6/16/2020 02:19
What a lot of fun. #1 took me days but the rest were easier once I got on a roll. I guess I should give it a couple of weeks but would people like a stream on these and others at some stage?

Jon Speelman
brelenat brelenat 6/14/2020 06:59
With a ilegal move i got in 6 moves:
1-d4, d6; 2-Kd2, Bf5; 3-c3, Bb1; 4-Qe1, Be4; 5-Kc2?, Bd5; 6-Kb1, Be4++
VincentM VincentM 6/13/2020 07:16
I'm the "King" of +1 since I only managed to "solve" (2) in 8. Grrrrr.
1 move for b3 to free b2 square, wN has to go (Na3 for example), wB to b2 then to g7, wQ to b1 to occupy b1 and free a passage for the wK, 3 moves for the wK, 8 moves...
AFAIK, the 3 wK moves are mandatory, the b3 move also. I guess the 2 moves of wB (c1-b2-g7) are necessary too (all other white pieces need more than 2 moves to reach g7)... That's 6 moves...

I though I found a neat idea of solving the problem of the c2-d2 pawns (to avoid them shielding the b2-g7 diagonal) by capturing the d2 pawn with the bQ, pinning the c2 pawn (two birds, one stone)
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 6/13/2020 04:19
Vincent M: same with me. I thought for a short moment I had it by taking the knight on d2 with the queen, also blocking access to d3 for the white queen. Then I saw Qc2 is also possible... A bishop tour with [d6] Bc8-f5xb1xa2-d5-e4 leaves a2 open.
For a solution in 7, you can for instance take the white knight with the g8-knight.
VincentM VincentM 6/13/2020 10:09
Still stuck on (1): only managed Be4 mate on the 7th move.
My thinking: K needs 3 moves to go to b1, c pawn has to go (c3?), d pawn has to move to d4 (to clear the e4-b1 diagonal) so Q has to move (otherwise goes to d3 after Be4).
So I get 6 moves for white.
R on a1 and B on c1 don't move (to "wall" the wK)
b1 Knight has to go (by moving him to a3, I get Nc2 to avoid mate so not possible. Nc3 is not possible because of Nxe4 after Be4 so it has to go without moving)
I get rid of the N on b1 by capturing it with the black B. Problem is, by doing that I "block/control" the b1/c2 square (needed for the wK) so I have to lose a move for white, allowing the bB to leave the b1-e4 diagonal (can't leave via a2 because it will open a "door" to the wK to escape)... So I'm stuck at 7... :-(
Zvi Mendlowitz Zvi Mendlowitz 6/12/2020 08:48
Here are a few examples of moves that determine the entire game, you may enjoy solving these:

4...b5#
4...Re1+
4...Re2
4...Qb5#
5.Ng3#
5.Qxe4#
5...Rh1#
6.gxf8=N#
7.Ka3#
7.Ka5#
7...Kxb7#
Timothy Chow Timothy Chow 6/12/2020 05:32
These are helpmates, not selfmates.
JoshuaVGreen JoshuaVGreen 6/12/2020 04:42
Finally solved (1). Unfortunately, there are some small variations along the way. Time to go after (2).
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