Unusual puzzles to end the year!

by Frederic Friedel
12/31/2023 – Today we have two very special problems. They are doubtlessly like no other chess puzzle you have seen. And warning: they are very hard. You could easily spend a substantial part of the final day of the year 2023 struggling to solve them. But if you succeed, you will experience an exhilarating feeling of pride. Take a look.
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This is a highly unusual chess puzzle. Your task is to place a white king and a white bishop on the board so that White to move can mate in two moves.

There is a second task: once you have found the solution, you must show how the position could have arisen in a normal game of chess – i.e. reconstruct the last two legal moves before the position with the king and bishop. 

Warning: it is a very difficult puzzle, one I was unable to solve. And if you are looking for something even more challenging, how about:

Each letter stands for a specific black or white piece type. Reconstruct the position.

This may look extremely daunting, but it is possible to solve with purely logical thinking. Believe me, there is only one possible legal solution. And it generates a great feeling of pride when you have worked everything out.

A hint: C, D and E are the only letters that can stand for the white and black kings, since there can be only one of each on the board. And because kings cannot stand on adjacent squares, it must be C and E that translate to the kings.

You may not believe it, but it is possible to deduce the entire position in the same way. This time it is definitely advisable to fetch the chessboard and pieces – they are somewhere in the cupboard in your workroom – and use them to make progress. But another warning: it may require a lot of thinking time, so schedule this to accommodate for the New Year's celebration you have planned.

We hope you have enjoyed these truly unusual problems. If you feel up to it, do try to compose similar puzzles yourself. Your submissions will take part in our Composition Contest.

Please submit your compositions here

Friends, we have switched on feedback commentary. Naturally, you should not post any solutions! Just tell us whether you enjoyed the puzzles, struggled with them, and if you were able to solve them yourself. In a special solution page we will show you how twp well-known (and very strong) grandmasters fared with these unusual puzzles. And that they will encourage you to venture into the fascinating world of chess composition.

Previous Christmas 2023 puzzles

Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.

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Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 1/6/2024 11:20
Jia Haoxiang, please delete your comment (hit the black cross in the top right corner); you are ruining other people's pleasure. Look above (in bold lettering): 'you should not post any solutions'.
Jia Haoxiang Jia Haoxiang 1/6/2024 07:54
White king in e2 and white bishop in Bf1. 1.Ke1 Re2 2.Be2
Black's Last move is dxe1 (take something) promote to Queen!
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 1/2/2024 09:40
It didn't take me very long and if 4N used more time than me, I would be very surprised. Perhaps it is just one of those things where you have to see it quickly or it will drive you mad (as the heavily underrated helpmate in five of the chessbase India problems nearly did to me). I know one or two things about problems, have a <2100 rating, but am hardly a regular solver.
As a tip for other solvers: try to think as the composer; there must be something special, otherwise it would not have been presented. As Sherlock Holmes might have said: 'If nothing seems possible, look for the most improbable'.
joseba987 joseba987 1/2/2024 06:02
I found the only possible position after thinking for over half an hour, but it left me doubtful because it was apparently illegal. Then the second question made me realize that it is not illegal, and I quickly found out why. Good problem, ultimately, a bit of logic is needed. I have 1800 Elo points.
Frederic Frederic 1/2/2024 04:49
@Frits Fritschy: "By the way, this problem is in my opinion quite doable for novices." We have filmed two very strong grandmasters, one a young super-talent, the other a problem expert (with four N's in his name), solving these problems live. And then we showed them to a generally super-smart person (is a professor with a doctorate in quantum physics) who is an amateur chess player - to compare how each fares with such unconventional problems. We will publish the videos next week.
JoshuaVGreen JoshuaVGreen 1/2/2024 02:01
@Frits Fritschy, I agree that in a popular article it's reasonable to cut them some slack. The problem is that they took it too far here. They could have simply asked how the position could be legal, but instead they asked for something more specific, "reconstruct the last two legal moves before the position with the king and bishop." As an experienced solver I would have understood what they meant had they asked for just one move, but I don't think anyone can infer what is meant by their request for two moves. That lack of understanding was what led me to post my original comment, and I maintain that this stipulation is simply wrong.
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 1/1/2024 06:17
I don't think there is much of a problem. Experienced solvers will quickly see what is meant and those without knowledge of all conventions will be pleased to see the idea. But of course it is better to be precise in stipulations.
By the way, this problem is in my opinion quite doable for novices.
JoshuaVGreen JoshuaVGreen 1/1/2024 05:19
@Frits Fritschy, there's a convention in retro problems. When someone asks for the last (say) ply, they don't just want the movement of a piece; they want the position right before that ply was played. (For example, claiming the last ply was Bf7+ wouldn't be precise enough; you'd need to distinguish Bf7+ [non-capture] from BxPf7+, BxNf7+, etc..) Here the position before Black's most recent ply cannot be fully determined, and going back even further is hopeless. The problem seems to be mis-stipulated.
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 1/1/2024 01:31
You leave me puzzled, Joshua, as I see only one legal black move leading to the position. However, there are of course a lot of possible white moves before that. Maybe we should discuss the definition of 'only move' later.
There is a problem with the sentence 'reconstruct the last two legal moves'; it may suggest there is only one way, but I don't think that was meant.
JoshuaVGreen JoshuaVGreen 12/31/2023 09:38
I must be missing something with respect to the first problem. I have a placement for the wK and wB that allows White to force checkmate in two moves, but not even Black's previous ply is completely determined.
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