mate in 128

White to move. Mate in 128.

I'm quite new here, so not sure if this one has been posted before, but I like it alot. I admit this position is not gonna appear too often in real games, but still it's funny to have a forced mate in no less than 128 moves. Computers will show only +-0.00 here for a long time :-)

edit: sorry, just saw that its only 127 moves ;-)

Well the beginning is pretty obvious:
1.Qe1+ Rc1 2.Qd2 which leaves me with just 126 1/2 moves to consider 🙂
EDITED: it appears the only possible move for Black now is 2...Rc2 (for 2...Bc2 is followed by 3.Qc3 and 4.Qb2🙄, so a few more moves:
2...Rc2 3.Qd1+ Rc1 4.Qxd3+ Rc2, still 122 moves left but it seems clear that the only two pieces that move are the White queen and the black rook.

Originally posted by crazyblue
[fen]8/7p/7p/p4n1p/b3Q2p/K2p3p/p1r5/rk5n w - - 0 1[/fen]

White to move. Mate in 128.

I'm quite new here, so not sure if this one has been posted before, but I like it alot. I admit this position is not gonna appear too often in real games, but still it's funny to have a forced mate in no less than 128 moves. Computers will show only +-0.00 here for a long time :-)

yes it's all forced and there is no faster way to checkmate if black plays best. i was wrong though, it's only 127 moves. but that's still alot :-)

Hmmm... Okay, here we go:
1.Qe1+ Rc1 2.Qd2 Rc2 3.Qd1+ Rc1 4.Qxd3+ Rc2 5.Qf1+ Rc1 6.Qxf5+ Rc2 7.Qf1+ Rc1 8.Qe2 Rc2 9.Qe1+ Rc1 10.Qe4+ Rc2 11.Qxh1+ Rc1 12. Qe4+ Rc2 13.Qe1+ Rc1
(only 114 moves left)

Originally posted by crazyblue
yes it's all forced and there is no faster way to checkmate if black plays best. i was wrong though, it's only 127 moves. but that's still alot :-)

Originally posted by ilywrin
Hmmm... Okay, here we go:
1.Qe1+ Rc1 2.Qd2 Rc2 3.Qd1+ Rc1 4.Qxd3+ Rc2 5.Qf1+ Rc1 6.Qxf5+ Rc2 7.Qf1+ Rc1 8.Qe2 Rc2 9.Qe1+ Rc1 10.Qe4+ Rc2 11.Qxh1+ Rc1 12. Qe4+ Rc2 13.Qe1+ Rc1
(only 114 moves left)

Originally posted by Mephisto2
8.Qe2? Rc3+ seems to spoil it

yup you got it. its the same mechanism until Q is on e4 once again and black moves his last pawn to h1. but what then? there has to be some checkmate then and if there is, why couldnt white do it before? thats the nice aspect about this problem, even though its not so difficult to figure out anymore now.

Originally posted by crazyblue
yup you got it. its the same mechanism until Q is on e4 once again and black moves his last pawn to h1. but what then? there has to be some checkmate then and if there is, why couldnt white do it before? thats the nice aspect about this problem, even though its not so difficult to figure out anymore now.

Those are a lot of moves.
Which role does the pawn on a5 play?

Originally posted by jfkjmh
Those are a lot of moves.
Which role does the pawn on a5 play?

Originally posted by jfkjmh
Those are a lot of moves.
Which role does the pawn on a5 play?

Originally posted by Mephisto2
Qb4+ wins immediately without a pawn on a5.

edit: as the posting above also indicates.

Once we get this solution can we get someone to play it out from set piece so we can watch it?