Can You Solve This Fascinating Problem?

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[@heartmint7364]

Thanks Nelson. I always found myself in this position before

[@boevoikrikun]

Hey! I always end up with a position like this as well. Except all of the opponent's pieces can actually move

[@sanelprtenjaca9147]

It's not a practical puzzle but it does help to understand the nature of chess.

[@whatsupholidays16]

@@sanelprtenjaca9147 nahhh really? I never knew!

[@legoman8877]

Sanel Prtenjača Bruh no way🥸

[@StopRemindingMeOfThoseDays]

@@sanelprtenjaca9147 true

[@Matthew-bu7fg]

Just for context, which World Championship match was this taken from? Would love to be able to look more in-depth into which player I need to play like in order to exploit this position

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

😂

[@arneshpal7702]

XD

[@faladodososomeme6739]

@Chess Vibes King could also move to d2 and if pawn moves to change kill it then they move queen you move knight and win you could’ve made it easier

[@kuruto3556]

@@faladodososomeme6739 Well no, if King moves to d2 then he'd put himself into check, by c3 and, well, the other King...

[@doonovan1202]

@@faladodososomeme6739 I think you mean f2

[@MarcelVolker]

Also interesting about this is to ponder whether the starting position is even legally possible. And - it is! To get Black's pawns to move across the files they have to do 1+1+2+3+3+3=13 captures, and white has lost 14 of his pieces. So that works.

[@floofula1260]

Except whichever Pawn takes White's a Pawn would have to take something else to at least end up on the B file, since there is no black Pawn on the a file. There isn't enough pieces on the board for it to work.

[@MarcelVolker]

@@floofula1260 Ah yes, good shout. Doesn't that just mean that the 14th capture is of White's a-pawn and can be done by a piece?

[@floofula1260]

@@MarcelVolker that does sound like it would work in theory. Silly me for not noticing

[@nimiugn]

I tried to set it up, and it works! Definitely a fun challenge to myself. Not hard, but everything work out perfectly. It’s so satisfying. Here’s the PGN: 1. g4 Nf6 2. g5 Nc6 3. g6 hxg6 4. f4 a5 5. f5 gxf5 6. e4 fxe4 7. Qg4 Nd5 8. Qe6 fxe6 9. d3 exd3 10. Bg5 Nc3 11. Nd2 Nd4 12. Bf6 gxf6 13. Ne2 Nf3+ 14. Kf2 Ne1 15. Nd4 Nxa2 16. c4 f5 17. Bg2 Nc3 18. Bd5 exd5 19. c5 e6 20. c6 dxc6 21. Ne4 fxe4 22. Rg1 a4 23. Nf3 a3 24. Nd2 axb2 25. Ra4 Nb1 26. Nc4 dxc4 27. Rg5 c3 28. Rd5 exd5 29. Rc4 Bg4 30. Kg1 Ra3 31. Kh1 Rb3 32. Kg1 Qa8 33. Kh1 Qa2 34. Kg1 Ba3 35. Kh1 Bd1 36. Kg1 Ke7 37. Kh1 Ke6 38. Kg1 Ke5 39. Kh1 dxc4 40. Kg1 Kd4 41. Kh1 Ke3 42. Kg1 Kd2 43. Kh1 Kc1 44. Kg1 Rf8 45. Kh1 Rf2 46. Kg1 Rd2 47. Kh1 e3 48. Kg1 e2 49. Kf2 c2 50. Kg1 c3 51. Kf2 c5 52. Kg1 c4 53. Kf2 c5 54. Kg1 b5 55. Kf2 b4

[@thundermill7109]

@@floofula1260 even if this was a problem white could promote his pawns and sac the promoted pieces instead.

[@wofker4719]

the real problem is how did black get into this position

[@brucewillis542]

This is your average 300-400 match

[@glowingfish]

Since white is down 25 points when they get the knight, a draw by repetition also seems like a respectable outcome!

[@aididdat1749]

What's the rule about repetition?

[@nealfirstofhisname]

@@aididdat1749 if the pieces on the board are in an identical position at three different times, it is a draw by repetition.

[@olegtrophymenko7037]

33 points*

[@gildeddrake1479]

draw is never a respectable outcome when you're in the position to force mate.

[@glowingfish]

@@gildeddrake1479 the only respectable outcome is for chess players to find a better game to play, like horseshoes, billiards, or bee keeping

[@gldni17]

Weirdly, having not played chess in years, I didn't realize that white's pawn on H2 hadn't moved at all and had a double move available, ironically getting me to the solution easier because I only thought you could move it one space at a time. XP

[@samuelashraf530]

same, solved it by virtue of forgetting how to chess

[@elisabethsun7059]

@@samuelashraf530 XD

[@singerist5771]

Sometimes being noob helps😀

[@vencedor1774]

You can counter the tempo by just moving the king lol

[@Random_Newbie]

@@vencedor1774 But if you moved the king, the pawn would go f1 and let the rook out. If you took the pawn, the bishop would be able to go out aswell

[@DarshanShah10]

Move the king hoping that black has pre-moved the queen

[@chib3003]

LOL

[@AbiGail-ok7fc]

I quickly saw you needed the right tempo to take the Rook, but instead of calculating whether you should play h3 or h4, I said, "it's a puzzle, h4 is the obvious move, so the solution must be to play h3".

[@Jman-cx4bd]

Can’t you just play king f2 to change the tempo

[@black_dreamsx]

that’s what i thought

[@mell7249]

@@Jman-cx4bd You'd free up the rook and the bishop though

[@zacht3425]

@@mell7249 no you wouldn’t?

[@AGryphonTamer]

​@@zacht3425 no, tried it against stockfish. The pawn promotes instantly and the rook gives check. If the pawn becomes a queen it gives check too and you're forced to take it. By that point the rook is out.

[@braydenswinhart]

I really like the process of the white/black tempo. You couldn’t land on a5 (black) while the queen was on a1 (black). So you had to switch the order so when you moved to black, the opponent was moving onto a white space. Changing the tempo to 1-2 (white moves to black, and black moves to white) to a 2-1 (white moves to black, and black moves to black). The final bit is interesting because the black pawn allows the opponent to upset the tempo back to 1-2 by not moving the queen while your knight has to move. Very interesting and thought provoking. Great video!

[@nemi7916]

the hardest puzzle is: how tf did black get in that position

[@MarcelVolker]

It was Jobova playing one of his creative games

[@micahwright5901]

A momentary lapse of reason

[@irrelevant_noob]

@@micahwright5901 or rather a dozen such lapses... xD

[@TheBlueWizzrobe]

This was the first one of these that I've seen that I've been able to solve entirely by myself right from the beginning! I think this one was probably a relatively easy one since the idea of promoting the pawn is pretty obviously the only strategy available, and once you consider promoting it to a knight instead of a queen, it pretty much solves itself from there.

[@uwose]

I'm also proud that I saw everything from the beginning and calculated the starting move of the pawn. I am not a chess player, and for me it was very easy because I only needed a bit of logic. I must admit that I saw a similar puzzle some time ago, so I was well-prepared.

[@yyyyyk]

Interesting puzzle. This one really shows how if we don't calculate all the moves up to the checkmate, it might not work, since we should have moved to h3 instead of h4.... what a tricky position! 😄 Thanks, NM Nelson!

[@gordonherring2055]

@@MrLegrosalo Not really, the Knight's tempo would be lost. See my comment below in reply to Soumil Josh.

[@MrLegrosalo]

@@gordonherring2055 you're right

[@VinniePaul91]

Tehcnically you only have to check which color square the knight is on when it promotes, you need to capture the rook on a light square when the queen is on a dark square, so you need to promote on the dark square when the queen is on the light one.

[@IceManlol-lc2jb]

3:55 in that play, you can move you're king to F2, if the opponent put the queen back into A1 chekmate, but if it loose a tempo pushing pawn to C4 you take it with the knight then (when queens move back to A1 and then A2) you put knight back into A5 and then move the king to E1 and then chekmate, i think about that

[@herobrine-wg8zz]

This was just what I was thinking

[@tykemorris]

If you move your king the e file pawn promotes with check. Yes the king can capture the new queen immediately but the rook and Bishop can escape, ruining your only checkmate plans. It would be a nearly certain loss for white. If you accidentally have tempo wrong, you agree to a draw or do a three-move draw.

[@godnmaste]

The Pawn walked so that the Knight could run.

[@alsansoni5321]

Great, if I ever get into this position during a game, I know what to do now.

[@micahwright5901]

It’s important to learn to trap them into this position.

[@ziwuri]

@@micahwright5901 The Rosen stalemate trap 2.0: My king's not trapped in the corner by your queen, my queen's trapped by my own pieces!

[@joachimfrank4134]

Brilliant puzzle. Having to take the other pawn first just to prevent a move was funny.

[@jasonruff1270]

I remember seeing this one a few years ago, amazing puzzle really

[@soumiljoshi9441]

Yea it was a video by Chess Talk

[@76soccerlover]

@@soumiljoshi9441 So I solved it at first try, I already knew it.

[@gordonherring2055]

@@soumiljoshi9441 I think Chess With Suren is the earliest video (Jun 8, 2017). However, I think the only gaffe he ever made was in that video. Arriving at h8 on tempo, there is no wrong move from h8 (at least as far as a White win goes, regardless of number of moves). The only error is taking the pawns out of order, which gives Black the opportunity to change his enforced tempo.

[@Chalhattbadmashhhhhh]

Moving the pawn to h3 instead of h4 was some insane calculation

[@sourkrauto7835]

This is great, but regarding the tempo problem, couldn’t you move the king to f2? It doesn’t leave any pieces to move and the knight doesn’t have to move.

[@viktorjaakkola200]

no because then he can move his e pawn and release his rook

[@TheAdambg112]

@@viktorjaakkola200 but even if the rook moves, there will be mate no ?

[@xM4RTYR]

​@@TheAdambg112 White's king is blocking a pawn that can be promoted to another piece, immediately putting white into check.

[@TrykusMykus]

@@TheAdambg112 there won't because the bishop is freed too. After the bishop is free, the king is free.

[@viktorjaakkola200]

@@TheAdambg112 You may be right!

[@rizon72]

To be honest, if a person finds themself in this situation they are not going to be smart enough to get out of it.

[@droidgracie4121]

I was only able to solve this by trying what worked after my nth time. I would never be able to see through the “tempo” required. Stockfish even promoted the pawn to a queen and was satisfied with 3-repetition draw.

[@RMF49]

If you see the basic idea to capture the N and promote to N to mate in b3 then you can see through the tempo needed by just trying the h4 line and counting how many total moves it takes you to get a N to a5. Turns out it’s 14 which is bad because black Q is on a2 after an even number of moves. Then you know h3 is the key.

[@arneshpal7702]

Ok

[@ziwuri]

I'm sure the stockfish devs have made promoting to a knight a very low priority for the engine. It would need a very deep depth to even consider promoting to a knight. Also, the huge material disadvantage is probably doing a number on its willingness to try and win.

[@spamspam3847]

My question is how tf did black manage to get the worst position possible

[@vladislavchessmate1567]

Good one, i know this! But where you find these brilliant puzzles?

[@zai5491]

For me is chess talk and also the latest video is still chess talk

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

One of my subscribers mentioned Otto so I looked up his famous puzzles.

[@matthewspencer3578]

​@@ChessVibesOfficial Great video as always keep up the great work!! Also I know I have mentioned him before though I highly recommend Frederick Lazard specifically this study. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWm1qIyVi5eBe5o Very fascinating. Thank you as always.

[@thedanman6332]

The real puzzle is finding out how black got in that position in the first place

[@json_bourne3812]

"h3 or h4" is the biggest hint to this whole thing. King captures is easy, and noticing the best mating square after dealing with the defending pawns is rather easy. But calculating the timing of the queen with the number of knight moves required is rather tedious if you don't want to just try it with both h3 and h4 separately.

[@W.E.]

Love the answer ( h4; h3 ), But! ... One would only have to Think it through from Move h4, let's say, ... and if that did NOT work then the other Move would be the correct one! (h3) @@@@ Hint h3 is the CORRECT one!

[@tykemorris]

I tried counting moves at first and counted wrong. Best to look at color of squares. After the king move, white wants to land on a white square after anytime black lands on a black square, and vice versa.

[@sinahelmi6696]

It is not a hard puzzle and you don't need to calculate all the moves one by one in your mind. After Kxe1 Qa1 you just need to find out when your knight is about to capture the rook, black's queen must be in the wrong square. If we continue with h2-h4 our piece lands in a dark square, then queen lands in a light square, so when the knight reaches a5 (a dark square), black's queen is about to moving to a2 (a light square) which is the wrong sequation, therefore our first pawn move should be h2-h3 so when we land in a light square black's queen also have to land in the same color after our move, then we can be sure when our knight arrives to a5 (a dark square) black's queen must land in the same color which is the wrong square for the queen. By this way I solved the puzzle in less than 1 minute.

[@I_guess_its_over]

Me: wow! Cool puzzle i wanna try puzzles like this *Proceeds to find a chess puzzle app and finally play puzzles* Puzzle: Me: *Proceeds to uninstall the app*

[@blacklight683]

My solution: 1:kill the night with the king 2:promote the pawn into queen 3:profit

[@iwillnotwritemyrealnameher452]

Imagine queen vs 8 pawn,2bishop,2knight,2rook,1queen

[@slimyduck2140]

Before watching the video: After king takes in D1 the white pawn should h3-h4 ect while the queen moves. Once it promote make it into a knight and goes f7, d6, b7, a5, and b3 checkmate because the queen is the only piece that can be moved for black the whole time and when the Knight is on b3 the queen is in a1. Edit at 3:04 : ok I'm dumb, so when you have the Knight it's f7, e5, c4, a5, at that point Black's queen on a2 so black does pawn c4 then white do Nc4, now only Black's queen can move, then for white it's na5, nb3 checkmate. Edit 2 : I quit chess.

[@irrelevant_noob]

Btw, the piece letter for a knight is N, since K is reserved for the king. ;-)

[@slimyduck2140]

@@irrelevant_noob yep, learned that a few day ago. I didn't know the english letter. I'm gonna change that

[@atomicbomblover]

The problem of the queen always defending that one pawn could be solved by not moving two squares in the start. Thought of that, for those who just left? You have to “calculate” moves, this is why puzzles are useful and you should watch this guy.

[@calebh7640]

Excellent video. The number of moves by white needs to be even (so Nb3# is on an even move so that black queen is on a1). For knights, when moving from a dark (or light) square to a square of opposite colour it is odd number of moves. If moving (eventually) to a square of the same colour it is even number of moves. Using some math (odd + odd = even, even + odd = odd), Ke1 (odd), Nh8 to Nc5 (even), Nc5 to Nc4 (odd), Nc4 to Nb3 (even) - adding up to even number, therefore working backwards, pawn on h2 to h8 must be an even number of steps hence you push 1 (6 moves to promote) instead of 2 (5 moves to promote).

[@W.E.]

01. Kxe1 Qa1 02. h3 Qa2 03. h4 Qa1 04. h5 Qa2 05. h6 Qa1 06. h7 Qa2 07. h8N Qa1 08. Nf7 Qa2 09. Nd6 Qa1 10. Ne4 Qa2 11. Nxc5 Qa1 12. Nd7 Qa2 13. Nb6 Qa1 14. Nxc4 Qa2 15. Na5 Qa1 16. Nxb3 Mate Also works.

[@jessetrevena4338]

This puzzle is so interesting, so many little details that can't be missed, great video!

[@Amoeby]

I just calculated my moves. If the number is even then the last black's move was Qa2 and if it is odd then Qa1. The rest was easy. 1. Kxe1 Qa1 2. h3 Qa2 3. h4 Qa1 4. h5 Qa2 5. h6 Qa1 6. h7 Qa2 7. h8=N Qa1 8. Ng6 Qa2 9. Ne5 Qa1 10. Nd7 Qa2 11. Nxc5 Qa1 12. Ne4 Qa2 13. Nd6 Qa1 14. Nxc4 Qa2 15. Na5 Qa1 16. Nxb3#

[@fred_bauer]

I dunno about these puzzles, they always try to trick you, so for me I already thought about stuff you could overlook in advance, like moving the pawn 1 square on the first move or promoting to a knight instead of a queen. The only thing that would've required me to think was the pawn move of black.

[@mystery5906]

before i watch the video, just looking at the board, it seems like our first move has to be taking the knight with our king. any other move would allow the knight to move, and the pawn could promote on the next turn, which then frees the rook - just a bad time all around. after we take the knight, blacks only legal move is to move the queen, and at that point, as long as we block the pawn with our king, we can promote our pawn as they shuffle their queen back and forth. i think keeping track of the queen may actually be important, so ill do just that: as we move our king to e1, the queen moves to a1. then, as we move our pawn to h3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, the queen moves to a2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1. so, at the point that our pawn is at h8, the queen is on a1, directly opposite our... knight?!?!? here what im thinking: if we can remove the two pawns on c4 and c5 that defend the rook on b3 as the queen is on a1, we can checkmate the king before the queen can make the two moves necessary to capture our knight. but is that possible? we need to arrive on b3 in an odd number of moves; if we could take both pawns and the rook the turn after we promoted, we could checkmate the king, but if we made another move first, the queen moved to a2, and then we magically captured everything and moved to b3, the queen could just take us immediately afterwards, escape, and checkmate us after freeing the rook. so, with the queen on a1, heres what we do: Nf7 Qa2 Nd6 Qa1 Nc4 Qa2 Ne5 now, at this point, our opponent has two legal moves: continue shuffling their queen, or move their pawn. if they move the pawn, just move back to c4 to capture them. if they go Qa1, we go Nd7, now threatening to capture the pawn. if they move the pawn to c4 and out of immediate danger: Ne5 Qa1 Nc4 Qa2 Na5 Qa1 Nb3# if they dont move the pawn, letting us capture it, then we just go: Nc5 Qa1 Nb3# i dont believe our opponent has any other moves during our adventure around the board, so im going to say that ive solved it. now i just have to watch the video and find out if the solution is something entirely different. edit: oh wow i didnt even remember that i could move my pawn two spaces at the start, i guess i lucked my way into the checkmate. edit 2: i guess didnt get the checkmate at all because i took the wrong pawn first 😭 i had the right idea though. im not sure where i messed up in my notations to get to the point where it looked like it was still going to work, but im not going to check 🤷‍♀️

[@eufrosniad994]

What is amazing or great about this puzzle is while it looks simple at first, the moment you make the first move with the pawn without computing ahead, you are in trouble.

[@jackhefelfinger8752]

The amount of people saying “You could’ve just moved the king to lose a tempo” is concerning.

[@EvanThGa]

7:04 Zuckswang?

[@ChickensDream]

That means every possible move in the position is losing

[@EvanThGa]

@@ChickensDream he says it weird

[@nedaj-dv7ue]

Honestly the queen would be a better piece in this position, and you didn't need to loose tempo if you had a queen

[@Meethejarate]

Honestly, you can’t checkmate with a queen in that position

[@frantisekvrana3902]

So trying my solution: The only black with relevant movement is the e1 knight. The first move is obviously Kxe1. The black can now only move their queen back and forth, allowing white to get the pawn forward and build whatever they want. It will be a Knight. The Pawn will move by 1 tile the first turn, to make sure the black Queen starts her turn on the opposite color tile as he. (and he starts his turn on the same color tile) This knight can take out the c5, then c4 pawns with impunity. Importantly, the b3 Rook is now only protected by the Queen, and only every other turn. Specifically, every turn the Knight starts on a white tile. But the turn he can take it, he starts on a black tile. So he takes out the black rook on b3 and wins.

[@SamuelPearlman]

I feel like Black may have not entirely thought their attack through...

[@masterzander6118]

you know that you can have a stalemate with the queenif he got one

[@shreyjain3197]

imagine losing because you played h4 instead of h3 💀

[@guillaumelagueyte1019]

I completely disregarded the fact that the c4 pawn defended the rook and that the c5 pawn could be pushed to defend it if freed, but as this doesn't impact the tempi order, I got the correct answer regarding the initial push of the h pawn by only one square, so I'll consider that I solved this as I could have improvised on the go :D Lovely puzzle, thanks

[@gordonherring2055]

Well, it doesn't affect White's tempo, but giving Black an alternate move gives him the ability to change his tempo, and salvage stalemate.

[@seloplayz7385]

F in the chat for the guy who trapped himself in to a mate in this position

[@snaukball8764]

What would happen if we moved our king instead of moving the Knight in the first scenario?

[@Ignisami]

Since the only legal move at that point is to go diagonally up (because of pawn capture if going right, and black king or rook capture in any other direction), black move the pawn currently above the white king to the finish and promotes, checking the king with the rook. Kng moves up, rook moves out, and black slowly regains piece mobility (if needed) until the inevitable checkmate.

[@wariolandgoldpiramid]

Black would promote the pawn, probably to another Queen, and White won't be able to recover from that.

[@irrelevant_noob]

@@Ignisami king might rather take the promoted pawn, but now it has allowed black to unblock two of its pieces...

[@jasonmcinerney206]

Now if black waited for time to run out it would be a tie because of insufficient material

[@JK-te2jp]

I remember seeing this puzzle on a different channel. Still a surreal puzzle.

[@atlinsonxiao]

made me think that the knight is on a mission/quest inside a horror game.. having to encounter and eliminate problems just to accomplish what must be done

[@Nimzowitz]

These are great! I´m studying the endgame right now. I think that puzzles are a great way to study the endgame, because it shows how complex they can be! In the middle game you rarely get a long line of only moves. Usually it´s just many branches.

[@JLvatron]

Amazing puzzle, and I can't believe I solved it! Including the 1 space 1st move for the pawn, so the queen is out of sync. I also captured the top pawn 1st, then the 2nd, before the checkmate. I think I did this more by habit of getting all troublemakers.

[@TheLazyRonin]

Congrats on all the upgrades! Especially with the merch! I've been following your channel since you started and I'm so happy to see your deserved success!

[@AbouTaim-Lille]

Well . I have another puzzle . How can u move the black pieces from their normal starting position to the way they are organised in this puzzle ? Off course you are allowed to have white pieces to allow black pawns to take them and move diagonally. Remember some positions for pawns are impossible to reach , for example , u can't have 2 pawns for white on H2 and H3 and while there is already another white pawn on G2 .

[@jawstrock2215]

darn, I thought I had a way to capture all the pieces and force the black knight out(and doing a checkmate by eating the rook with the queen), but I get stuck with the black square bishop checking me out :/

[@vedranb87]

It's also a good example of how 2 wrongs don't make a right. You can't correct for the wrong pawn move by taking the wrong pawn first, allowing the black to move their pawn instead of the queen, because the black doesn't have to play that pawn ever because i thas a choice when, if ever, to lose a tempo.

[@fragrantpig2392]

Couldn’t you just move king to f2 so the queen moves

[@samuelife4436]

its covered by the pawn

[@vollkornkeks9177]

No since then pawn can promote and after you take it rook and bischop can come out

[@Meethejarate]

Before you say “king f2” LOOK AT THE E PAWN

[@andreisupervloguri8058]

I managed to solve it and then, watching the solution, I knew every twist that was coming. Awesome puzzle! 😀

[@AnonyMous-ql9nj]

I dont think anyone in the whole entire galaxy asked.

[@andreisupervloguri8058]

@@AnonyMous-ql9nj Well, this is for people from other galaxies

[@zyrusjohnjosue8264]

@Anony Mous i dont think that you thought that his message was polite and i dont mean to insult but please its just a normal message for it and has nothing to do with a conversation whatsoever.

[@allagatoral3839]

you chose the most meritorious move and position, myself, i would have moved the king beside the pawn forcing the queens move back and checkmated the black king!!!!! winning is the glory...

[@vijaysinghparihar2551]

Chess talks done it few years ago😅

[@neovofa]

ok.nice but what ami missing... if you make the "mistake" of moving pawn to h4 and you find yourself in the position where the queen is on the wrong spot. why not just move king to f2 to force yhe queen to move back...?

[@calewilliams3909]

The black pawn at E2 could then move down, Promoting and freeing the Rook at D2

[@neovofa]

@@calewilliams3909 hah silly me. Thats why am so bad at chess. :d but strangely enjoy it so much.

[@Adventurer-te8fl]

Also after king to f2, black promotes pawn to queen, and if u capture on e1 the tempo is reset again because 2 moves were spent

[@oZqdiac]

@@Adventurer-te8flNot only that but the rook and bishop are set free and you get mated very soon

[@darkeditz6148]

Actually with a queen it would take longer but if you take some of the pawns you could get mate on d2 Also one more thing if they waste a move with the pawn you could re ruin the tempo with a king move I might be wrong tho

[@fiendfi7119]

b1 knight defends everything and if the king moves, the pawn promotes which leads to Ke1 Re2 and the rook escapes

[@stomperlp8924]

As a German i find it super funny that Zugzwang is an international word in the chess community

[@digiboygaming5299]

Pre-watch idea: Block black from doing anything by capturing the Knight with your king, then get a Knight yourself with your pawn. Then get rid of further two pawns above the black king. Then, all you need to do is make sure you capture the black rook on B3 when the queen is in A1 and you win.

[@gillablecam]

Feeling like a fool here - couldn't you move the king once to force the opposing queen to move while your Knight stays still?

[@saltlemon9191]

the pawns gonna move

[@leegavin713]

Hi Nelson , just been looking at the chessvibes merchandise can't believe you haven't got a shirt with your signature saying on ..Stay Sharp Play Smart .. would deffo be popular .

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

Good idea!

[@karlo5967]

Thank you for finally explaining tempo in a practical way !

[@horse_1239]

I loved this puzzle :D thanks for sharing! I guess I'm wondering why we couldn't have moved the king to break the tempo instead of the fancy H3/H4 footwork?

[@mr.alifyt3878]

If we move our king anywhere then e pawn will promote and bishops diagonal and rook file will open up

[@a-train69420]

@@mr.alifyt3878 well there's only one option to move the king: f2, but of course you're right in that moving the king instantly loses as black's pieces are able to activate

[@trafalgarlaw8373]

This one's pretty easy. Thought process: 1) Notice black can't move aside from the queen and knight, thus you instantly have as much time as you need once the knight is gone. 2) First need to take the knight, as it's undefended. 3) You need to do checkmate with a knight. 4) Of the squares the knight can attack the king, e2, d3, a2 are guarded, leaving b3 5) B3 is guarded while the queen is on a2, and the king can't make idle moves due to the e2 pawn. Knight repositioning is always in even moves, so you need the difference with the pawn. Count the moves, and done. 6) Implement by taking the knight, pushing the pawn, promoting to queen, moving to a5 and mating.

[@gordonherring2055]

You're forgetting the c file pawns, which defend the mating square

[@dlucey123]

Very unusual situation, a great example of the value of a knight. Sweet checkmate at the end where the knight delivered checkmate whilst also forking the queen and rook. Wouldn’t this be considered a draw due to threefold repetition though if the queen repeats those moves 3 times?

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

It's only a draw if the exact same position is reached 3 times. But since white's knight was moving around, the position would be different, and therefore not a draw.

[@dlucey123]

​@@ChessVibesOfficial Thanks for confirming! That's what I expected because it's a win but the wording of online definitions for threefold repetition are often quite ambiguous for me.

[@tessevanknijff]

the best course of action, in my “humble” opinion, is this: 1 first, of course move the pawn all the way, use the double. 2 of course, get the horse. 3 since you did use the double at the start, making the number of turns played a uneven number, the queen is at 1a. so here is what you do: 7f (queen is 2a) 5g (queen is 1a) 6e (queen is 2a) 5c (takes pawn) (queen is 1a) 3b (takes rook) And since queen is at a1, it’s a checkmate!

[@Person01234]

People being glib about the unrealistic position in the comments but this really highlights why positional play can be powerful, it's not all about material. If your opponent has lots of material but none of it can move then it might as well not be there. This is obviously taken to an extreme, yes in any realistic position with this level of material difference black would be able to play some moves and free something but I have seen plenty of games where if you count up the pieces one player may be winning but because half their pieces are trapped on their squares it's actually the other player winning. This highlights the power of giving your pieces space to move and controlling the board itself.

[@TQuickest]

Why can’t you take the pawn in d3 and put the king in check after taking the pawns in c4 and c5? Then that way you don’t need to worry about tempo if you accidentally mess up.

[@ryco9669]

The rook takes your knight

[@nsxdarin]

whenever I'm white I'm going to try to trick black into this position from now on

[@giannisr.7733]

It never crossed my mind that knights can't triangulate like other pieces can

[@jacekduczek9524]

and the people who would move their king and then take the rook

[@sanelprtenjaca9147]

Classical example of logic in chess. I found the solution in smothered mate and Zuzwang just observing the position for a minute.

[@7punit]

I know it's a puzzle but this kind of position is never going to happen in a real game

[@zzzergling1079]

I instantly thought about knight with idea: this kind of shit alway is solved by knight.

[@jakubchapstick8871]

Couldn’t you wait for the queen to go back down by moving your king

[@underrated1524]

The queen doesn't move if you do that, because it doesn't have to. Moving your king allows black to move the pawn instead.

[@BennyKleykens]

Obviously only the Knight on E1 could ever mess this up for white

[@oZqdiac]

Puzzle moves: 1. Kxe1 Qa1 2. h3 Qa2 3. h4 Qa1 4. h5 Qa2 5. h6 Qa1 6. h7 Qa2 7. h8=N Qa1 8. Ng6 Qa2 9. Ne5 Qa1 10. Nd7 Qa2 11. Nxc5 Qa1 12. Nb7 Qa2 13. Na5 Qa1 14. Nxc4 Qa2 15. Na5 Qa1 16. Nxb3#

[@zbabyg6998]

Puzzles are cooler when they're potential positions imo.

[@grixmyron7637]

When Black played Grob's attack

[@TheElihs]

This is the first one of your puzzles that I actually figured out from start to finish!

[@mahmoudrabya585]

what a trick, i have no imagination for myself to ever be able to solve such a puzzle

[@ionizedparticle]

i feel so smart because i've watched another one of your puzzle videos and it involved a pawn moving 1 square not 2 at the start

[@theeverythingfox2094]

4:30 why can’t you just move the king and then the knight?

[@Meethejarate]

The e pawn promotes

[@JediMage]

Eating the knight with king will block black from making any moves outside of queen shuffling between A1 and A2, so we can take our sweet time with promoting the pawn. Next we need a bit of timing it right, but tbh i can't be bothered solving a puzzle which doesn't show fully because KZbin weird comment system.

[@awesomespurr3606]

What scares me is that this position is theoretically possible to create in a real game.

[@marshallkimmathers]

[@Renfade]

After knight c4 go e5 Either go back to c4 if black moves his pawn there from c5, or just go with the knight to d3 from e5 into checkmate

[@irrelevant_noob]

Guess you missed the rook guarding that d3 pawn?

[@SteveThePster]

Really cool puzzle. Tempo is so important in the endgame

[@clqrified]

5:57 if black moves the pawn forward, it offsets the rhythm again and the knight can't checkmate anymore.

[@Devonte-w8o]

Did you watch the rest of the video?

[@irrelevant_noob]

(or even just a handful more seconds after that point)

[@KingKharibda]

Just saw this in my bullet game, I couldn't figure out what to do but then I remembered this puzzle. Thanks!

[@shocker7570]

i never thought i was so smart as to figure this out within 2 minutes holy crap im surprised

[@Khantia]

getting INTO this position must've been fascinating xD

[@justsomeguy4935]

I think it would be harder to figure out how that configuration happened in the first place

[@aris6001]

B4 pawn, move it, move bishop to release queen and eat the pawn

[@lolwutinternet]

2:22 I like how it turns out that there's no wrong answer to this question. Kinda funny looking back after going through the whole puzzle.

[@irrelevant_noob]

Of course there's a wrong answer: the first one analyzed in the video "only the c4 one" is a wrong answer.