The Groundhog's Chess Puzzle - Episode 36

[@BlckJack123]

I had no idea that groundhogs could come up with such clever puzzles.

[@wariolandgoldpiramid]

Here's an idea for a future video: the heroes encounter a monster who traps them in their dungeon, and tells them: "we will play a chess game. If you lose, I will kill you. If you win, I'l let you live, and make you my slaves for the rest of your lives". So our heroes need to outsmart the monster by forcing a draw, that way the monster can't do anytning to them and must let them go. It would basically be like a showcase of a game, but our goal would be to force a draw (probably will an unexpected stalemate).

[@Anyting9OnTopGrrr]

I actually wanna see that, cool idea

[@Maxmaxmax63]

I second this idea!

[@barnabyalsop5601]

Fascinating! Just like a real groundhog burrow, this puzzle has a number of sneaky dead-ends to confuse would-be interlopers! Excellent study!

[@arthilas_]

At 2:45 you can also simply play Qg1+ as black, skewering white's queen. If Kxh7, you take the queen and white must take back, resulting in a stalemate. On any other king move, you capture white's queen and the h pawn is free to run once white takes the queen back.

[@weigao3671]

But white can just play Kf8 or Kh8, then after Qxg8+ and Kxg8, black still has a legal move with h6 or h5. Then white just takes on f7 and promotes their own f pawn.

[@timesnow6205]

3:04 by any chance if anyone is wondering why you can't move the king and get a queen then take the bishop, that's because that black g pawn will move and capture f pawn and force stalemate, even if you take it, they will move the other f black pawn and next move is stalemate

[@sairampatil5410]

There is that. But instead at 2:50 black should have played Qg1 or Qg2 check skewering king and queen, if white king leaves defence of queen then thanks for free queen. If defends by capturing on h7(if it doesn't capture then it's losing for white) then black queen takes white queen and king is forced to take queen or else lose game and we get a stalemate.

[@thee0581]

3:04 Why should the King take the pawn? Just sidestep the King, let the black pawn head down, you get with your own pawn a queen earlier and can deliver the checkmate.

[@VasilisAnagnostou]

Mr Lopez you make excellent presentations! Really enjoyable to attend!

[@frankpulmanns6685]

@3:06: Why would you take the pawn? Just move your king to e7 or g8 and it's mate in 3.

[@joepiazza3756]

At 3:05 it should be mentioned that the King side-stepping the pawn is no good because black can force a stalemate be capturing the f4 pawn or by pushing to f4 if the f4 pawn takes.

[@fifiwoof1969]

WOW! Another epic!

[@darkonikolic8019]

Hi Nelson, 2.59 if white play Kh8 Qf6, white Qg7 and black Queen takes Qg7. Khxg7. Black pan can plays White takes pan Kf7 and white win

[@fifiwoof1969]

I reckon the red pill they have is starting to work on Peter, saving it for Bobby, haven't found him yet :-(.

[@jiogcyihsugyiocjfdoivhphvw6821]

but he doesnt have it, joe does

[@fifiwoof1969]

@@jiogcyihsugyiocjfdoivhphvw6821 you might have me there - which episode was that?

[@ShawFujikawa]

It would be a bit bizarre if the plot twist was that a red PILL doesn’t actually need to be eaten to work lol.

[@fifiwoof1969]

@@ShawFujikawa seeped through the skin while in their pocket - maybe!

[@jiogcyihsugyiocjfdoivhphvw6821]

@@fifiwoof1969 couple episodes back, when they solved the brothe's challenge and got the pill as a prize. avg joe has it in pocket

[@nentrine8586]

Theory: Peter Pawtzer's power is wearing off and he's starting to lose elo hence why he struggled with this puzzle. I think the same is going to happen with Bobby Fischerman but backwards, so he will gain elo.

[@aryanbehera2368]

No he will eat the pill given to jos by giant's brother

[@teomartini1105]

3:04 Dont take the pawn and you can get the queen and win

[@irfanlol1]

im waiting for peter to suddenly lose that 3500 rating, because that confusion is like forshadowing or something

[@drachefly]

And that suggests Bobby will get his rating back too?

[@come.inside.me.join.now.]

@@drachefly I think the apple has longer effect than berries, but we'll see of course

[@irfanlol1]

@@drachefly maybe slowly, idk its just a theory

[@ruireis1925]

The best web serie of all internet!

[@dragonhunter690]

I feel like they will meet each other soon By the way I have no idea how can this groundhog make a super complicate and extreme position like this. That just insane 😮

[@ashakhanal811]

Me too

[@mathematicsreadinggroup7288]

the first few moves are the hardest. Once you get past move 2, every move is more or less forced.

[@exoticdark9563]

After 36 puzzle, i think they need some sleep

[@giancarlocarbone2194]

That's right, woodchuck-chuckers, it's GROUNDHOG DAY!

[@argyllrs]

Hi Nelson, Would it be possible to use the puzzles as a series of articles on a site I write a few articles for? It would be a Saturday morning puzzle (or weekly in another slot) replacement for the crossword that has now stopped. It would be just the puzzle and a written explanation. Your relevant video would be linked at the bottom, with a description to your KZbin channel etc etc as you see fit.

[@Yuri-jb2pv]

at 3:04 what would happen if you just dont take the pawn?

[@paveljirgal8143]

The Black pawn will take the next White pawn and forced stalemate.... You would get the queen though, but not with check or anything, and Black cant move

[@danielyuan9862]

The pawn is going to continue and capture on f4, trapping itself.

[@DrQuatsch]

If you don't take back with the king but step aside to get a queen, you will still be too late. For example: Ke7 (ignoring the pawn) g5, and then the next move they will either capture on f4 (gxf4) to stalemate themselves again, or if you capture the pawn on g5, they'll push the pawn on f5 to f4 to stalemate themselves.

[@ShiuraAoi]

Black can push the pawn and then take on f4 to get the stalemate before white can checkmate

[@saintbrownthetrojan]

Trade pawns and sac queen if Kh8 for draw

[@lekinslayer]

An episode at midnight ? Wow

[@reubenmanzo2054]

Any episode has the potential to be uploaded at midnight, depending on what time zone you're in.

[@thenextgeneration9030]

it would be a cool idea to make chess variant puzzles like bughouse, duck, atomic, etc

[@rajatdogra96]

3:05 why not : not take the pawn and let our pawn become queen ?

[@RJSRdg]

Nelson will post the same video again tomorrow... and the day after tomorrow....and the day after that....

[@KitTP58]

The berries are wearing off

[@jonathancauley5345]

Dang, this was something else :)

[@prplt]

yess finally the time codes were added 🥰👍🏻🤩

[@Wonders_of_Reality]

The groundhog could have been more specific, but that doesn’t matter because he’s adorable! I love cute rodents! Will we encounter more of them? How about a gerbil, a vole or a squirrel?

[@YanGabriel39]

3:08 but if you play king g7 and push the pawn, isn’t it a winning position? Because of the backrank

[@Melvin-14]

the black pawn can just take the white pawn and force a stalemate

[@MountainPieEnjoyer]

3:05 why can't you just trade queens, don't take the pawn, then promote?

[@M1Miketro]

Stylemate 👏👏🔥🔥

[@rachanabhandari4585]

Hey Nelson, a long time suggestion: Pls make a puzzle in which the characters have to find litteraly the worst move on the board. Pls refer to Samay Raina's video where GM's find the worst move with real difficulty

[@DJSchreffler]

They already met the dragon: dragon shapeshifted into hedgehog.

[@brainfellow5140]

It has become apparent, certainly by now, that the main currency of this island is "chess puzzles"... 😂

[@timesnow6205]

i am guessing that in next episode bobby and peter potzer will meet each other in lost ruins, but really it is just a guess and not even a suggestion

[@ThatGuateKid]

netflix, make this a series!

[@khurramshoukat2178]

HELLO CAN YOU TELL HOW MANY TOTAL EPISODES ARE LEFT PLEASE I AM WAY TOO EXCITED PLEASE I BEG YOU

[@jiogcyihsugyiocjfdoivhphvw6821]

he wont do that, especially to someone who forgot capslock lol

[@nithinsputhussery5860]

How the hell did that Bishop end up there

[@teomartini1105]

In Puzzle Island noone does anything for nothing

[@jiogcyihsugyiocjfdoivhphvw6821]

hmm. the berries seem to be wearing off

[@Blazer69420]

lol

[@baschirthegreat9968]

I would love to see a puzzle as black

[@Deepakmahta]

I would like to see chess vibes adventure .please share video

[@tianlecheng2656]

Prediction on how this series ends: the dragon has a puzzle gun that shoots chess puzzles and if you don’t solve them you lose ELO and they ran out of elo and then they noclip into the chessrooms and then die.

[@Lovuschka]

And then it turned out that it all was a dream and they must solve one final superpuzzle to wake up.

[@matinassil155]

And when they realise that the dragon is magnus and they risign

[@florianzavelcuta8243]

Hard puzzle

[@fifiwoof1969]

GOODIE.

[@BigAsciiHappyStar]

plot twist: episode 37 is an exact replica of episode 36 😄

[@-WarMapping-]

how are just normal people and random animals just making good puzzles while i cant make a ggood one

[@bellama1834]

🕶😎😎♥

[@cloydancheta8586]

Where's chicken paul

[@benardolivier6624]

Oh no... the ELO buff is wearing off :(

[@jimrootham964]

On the queen trade line, don't take the pawn, unblock the king and push your pawn.

[@williamsquires3070]

I assume you mean the line at 3:01 after white moves Kf7? The problem is white’s accursed doubled f-pawns. Watch: 1 Kf7 Qg6+, 2 Qxg6 hxg6, 3 Ke7 (getting out of the way of the pawn) g5 (forced), 4 f7 gxf4!, 5 f8=Q … stalemate. If either of those white pawns on the f-file weren’t there, that plan would work, as white will deliver checkmate on c8 long before black can get a new queen, much less get it to c1 to protect the bishop.

[@Funcrashmalej]

I hope Bobby reunites with Peter and Joe in a few episodes...

[@k1k10fk1k1]

12th

[@jiogcyihsugyiocjfdoivhphvw6821]

drunkard

[@mathematician849]

Peter patzer is going to loose all its rating :( Please ahavr twist to stop this ....

[@BoredScarecrow]

Fourth

[@МаркЛюбаров]

Third. Damn Good video though

[@Player-df7ny]

First