Post Your Own Puzzles

Posting some of my own puzzles already has lead me to the idea of a home made puzzle thread. This thread is an opportunity for aspiring puzzlists such as myself to display their own masterpieces. Get to it!

*out of respect for other people's work, please don't post any puzzles that you didn't make.

I guess I'll start:

white to move and win

Qc3+

If Black responds Qxc3, then h8Q wins Black's queen and keeps the black pawn from promoting. If Black moves the King out of check instead, then Qxc8 will lead to White having two queens while Black has one.

Here's mine. It's White's move. Prove that White can mate in two moves, though it's impossible to show the first move that guarantees mate on the next move.

Black 3



White 8

I think I got it: The mate is possible because of the special moves en passant and castle. The solution being 1. d5xe6 -- 0-0-0 2.b2# or 1. d5xe6 -- anywhere 2.h8/Q#. There is also a mate in 2 assuming neither of those moves are valid in the puzzle being 1.Ke6 -- anywhere 2.h8/Q#. nj 🙂 ---- Thanks for being the first respondent! Feel free to put some more of your puzzles up if you'd like, I'll be periodically adding some of my own as well.

Originally posted by Jirakon
Qc3+

If Black responds Qxc3, then h8Q wins Black's queen and keeps the black pawn from promoting. If Black moves the King out of check instead, then Qxc8 will lead to White having two queens while Black has one.

Here's mine. It's White's move. Prove that White can mate in two moves, though it's impossible to show the first move that guarantees mate on the next move.

Black 3

[fen]r3k3/B5P1/1P1P1P2/3PpK2/8/8/6B1/8[/fen]

White 8

The solution being 1. d5xe6 -- 0-0-0 2.b2# or 1. d5xe6 -- anywhere 2.h8/Q#

The problem with that answer is that they both have the same first move, so you could show the first move that guarantees mate on the second move. You don't know for sure whether you can capture e.p. anyway.

Originally posted by Jirakon
The solution being 1. d5xe6 -- 0-0-0 2.b2# or 1. d5xe6 -- anywhere 2.h8/Q#

The problem with that answer is that they both have the same first move, so you could show the first move that guarantees mate on the second move. You don't know for sure whether you can capture e.p. anyway.

I believe this is from Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. So, unless your name is Raymond Smullyan, you should credit the author when you post his work (especially in a thread asking for "homemade" problems).

Nope, his puzzle was a bit off. The way it was presented in that book, this puzzle was unsolvable. It had a white pawn in place of the bishop on a7 (which defeats the idea of the puzzle). It took me a while to figure it out, but I was able to determine that if that pawn were a bishop instead, the problem would be solvable.

Oh, and artplayer's solution is still not complete (even with the third sentence). What if White plays Ke6, and Black castles? Then there's no move to mate in one.

That's a pretty slim justification, Jirakon. The genius of the problem is its concept, and you gave no sign that *that* wasn't yours.

I don't see how my solution is incorrect. The "special" rules prove that it is possible to force mate in 2, and as I said if neither "special" move is valid then ke6 works fine. I'd ask you to elaborate a little more, but it doesn't sound like this is even your puzzle. That's pretty ridiculous since I just requested that nobody post puzzles on this thread that they didn't make themselves 🙁

If you've got puzzles that you've made I'd love to see them, but please post the puzzles elsewhere if they aren't your own. Thanks 🙂

Sorry if anyone feels I've deceived them - that was not my intention. The way I see it, all puzzles that say "White to play and win/mate in n moves" have the same concept as well, but they're not seen as copies. I was just trying to make a puzzle with the concept "prove a mate in two exists, but can't be shown" that actually worked. I experimented with a lot of different possibilities (all over the board), and eventually found that changing the pawn to a bishop worked best. I'm not trying to steal anyone else's work.

The "special" rules prove that it is possible to force mate in 2, and as I said if neither "special" move is valid then ke6 works fine.

I'm not sure if you care anymore, but the problem was this: How do you know that neither special move is valid? What if White's e.p. capture is not valid, but Black's castling is? Then, as I asked earlier, what if White plays Ke6 and Black castles?

I see. I appreciate your notification that you weren't plagiarizing, I believe your puzzle's concept is unique, even if the position is derived from another puzzle. If you don't mind me asking, is this a philosophical question or is there is a concrete solution? From what I can tell there is no definitve mating lines with the "special moves" variable, in which case I'm interested in figuring out a good answer to your question.

Basically, you have to prove that either White can capture e.p. or Black can't castle. It turns out that there's no way this position could arise if neither of those were true.

If you want something completely original, I started making these about 8 months ago on a plane trip to Haiti. I've yet to even see this concept, so this is as original as it gets:



What's the smallest number of consecutive moves that White needs to checkmate Black? (White can't check Black until the final move) What if the Black king were on a4? What if it were on h4?