The most difficult mate in one

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  • The most difficult mate in one

    The most difficult checkmate in one move ever? Shared by Cyrus Lakdawala on facebook. Composed by Leonid Kubbel. It gave me a headache just putting the pieces in the diagram properly!

  • #2
    Has anyone found the solution yet?

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    • #3
      Yes. The mating piece starts and ends on the same square colour.

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      • #4
        Thanks Hugh. Good of you not to give the solution totally. I didnt see it quickly, I literally had to go through all the checks and defences until finally I stumbled on it.

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        • #5
          Hans I was going to send you a private message but you box is full.

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          • #6
            Hi John, send it to: hans_chess@hotmail.com

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            • #7
              When I first saw the position, I thought my great grandson had been playing with the chess pieces... three bishops on the same colour.... and other oddities. Then I thought maybe the cat had walked across the chess board. I stumbled on the solution fairly quickly... simple enough, I was looking for something more complex, like a double check or something.

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              • #8
                Yes like 1.d8=Q double check but its illegal (which is I think the first thing I saw).

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Hans Jung View Post
                  Has anyone found the solution yet?
                  I think so. The first move has to be a check and it has to be in such a way that there is no capture or block to delay the mate. You also cannot uncover the protection of any of the squares around the king that would allow the king a move. That leaves only one move. There is a psychological trick here as well that I noted with one of my students when doing some tactical puzzles and he rejected a move because he was confused of the direction that the board was turned in.. There are lots of distractions. There are lots of easy mates in two but only one mate in one that I can see.

                  In one tactics book there was the idea of a reloader where one piece replaces another in function and this is such an example where the reloader is passively backing up the mating piece. Here the solution exploits the fact that the mating piece has its relevant current function covered by another.

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                  • #10
                    ////////////
                    Last edited by Fred Harvey; Sunday, 12th January, 2025, 08:52 PM.
                    Fred Harvey

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Hans Jung View Post
                      Has anyone found the solution yet?
                      Found quickly when the brain stopped thinking that Black was at the bottom :) Nope, coordinates did not help :)

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                      • #12
                        Took me about 5 minutes.

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                        • #13
                          Got it, but not as fast as Ken.
                          Took me maybe 20 minutes.
                          That's a nasty one.

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                          • #14
                            I see it, I got entranced by two different ways to deliver the killing check, neither of which mate in one, before I found the right one.

                            edit which turned out to be wrong, but led me to the right answer at last.

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