This Chess Problem Left Me Speechless!

[@renegaderacinglegendary8889]

This was a very unique puzzle and i enjoyed it to the fullest. Hope there will be more like this.

[@NJDJ1986]

@7:34 white's King having a brilliant move on h8 is a good flex!

[@MohamedRedaBokhabrine]

Thanks for this video, i get this position on a daily basis and i always stalemate or get mated

[@markpevsner1024]

Haven’t seen that study by Shinkman before. Excellent! Thank you.

[@EnverHalilHoxha1917]

I recreated this scenario against stockfish as black and won. The key is to move the bishop. White has to move the king bc if they promote they get mated by queen h1 before they can mate with bishop d2. The rest is simple. Corner the king, and mate him

[@zbabyg6998]

The one puzzle I could solve easily from the beginning! Nice! I'm LEARNING!!!

[@joseeugeniojr]

Merry Christmas, Nelson! May God bless you and your family. Best regards and blessings from Brazil.

[@williamsquires3070]

(2:33) - Even though white can get the Queen first, he doesn’t give check with it (gaining a tempo), nor can it stop black from getting a queen on his move (also without check.) Furthermore, it’ll take the white queen several moves before it’s in a position to check (or checkmate) black’s king; meanwhile, white’s king is exposed, and black should be able to either keep giving check, or force white’s king into the h8 corner after which checkmate will be swift and deadly. At the very least, I’d analyze this position with Stockfish, because I don’t think this is cut and dried.

[@HD-fy2wu]

It's indeed a draw but forcing white's king into h8 is not a good idea. If you play through Stockfish's lines, you realize white actually tries to hide his king towards the h8 corner since it is closer to black's king so easier for White's queen to checkmate Black's king. Note that white will offer queen trade during the checks and black cannot accept them or black will be in zugzwang and be forced to move the bishop and allow white to promote and free all other pieces. So if White's King ever gets to the h7 square, White can easily put his Queen on h6 to block a check and check Black's King at the same time, forcing a Queen trade which Black does not want, also the h8 corner is further away from Black's bishop which may join the game if the position is right. So Black's strategy here is to prevent White's king from getting on h7 by sliding the queen between the h file and the b1-h7 diagonal. Another strategy for black which you miss after Qb3 is Bb6 straight away, offering a bishop and also allowing white to play d8=Q and get another queen. If white takes the bishop, black can immediately play Qd4+ offering his queen, which results in a stalemate if taken, and black can continue until white has to take eventually. On the other hand, if White proceeds to get another Queen, Black plays Qh1+ and follows with perpetual check with the Queen and Bishop, and offers the Bishop simultaneously. If white takes, black can then offer his queen with check and force a stalemate.

[@ogkushclouds2535]

This was great puzzle

[@TealBanana22]

Stalemate trap was very easy to find

[@ralkadde]

Great puzzle, Nelson! 02:44 Sorry, but for me this variant is still a draw. Strategy: Black will hunt Whites King with checks, and rest on the h-file, preventing mate on h6 or h8. White must capture the Bishop on d8 to make any progress. This gives Black space for perpetual checks, or forcing a stalemate. Variant: (after 1. a4 a5 2. Kg4 b6 3. Kxh4 b5 4. axb5 a4 5. b6 a3 6. b7 a2 7. b8=Q a1=Q) 8. Qb3 Qh1 9. Kh4 Qg1+ 10. Kf5 Qh1! 11. Qb8 Qg2 12. Qxd8 Qg4+ 13. Kxg4= stalemate.

[@chesscrush]

Its a win for white, white will hide the king from the checks by blocking with the queen resulting in black either trading or the white king walks down to a1 and its gonna be mate soon as the queen will protect the king and threaten mate.

[@luqmaanhay4957]

Nuh uh

[@ozelot131]

It's a crazy position and even Stockfish isn't sure if it's a draw or not. SF16 on Lichess often (I think 6 or 7 times) switches between draw (0.0) and win (often +3, I think the highest was +6) between depths of 20 and 40. But with a depth higher than 40 it stays on a draw (at the moment I have depth 66). I think it doesn't change later. PS: In depths lower than 40 the only way to draw was Bb6!!. Later the checks on e1, h1 and d4 are also draws.

[@jonathanwork7070]

You are correct that Kg4 draws on move 2. I have been doing some analysis on whether Kg2 wins for white on move 2. There is a forced draw if white takes the bishop. That being a draw reminds me of a fortress puzzle that engines would evaluate as a win but it is impossible to make progress.

[@luqmaanhay4957]

@@jonathanwork7070 NUH UH

[@lightning77125]

0:01 Mark Liburkin just had a heart attack, even being dead.

[@TheOGDisco]

He listened 🙂

[@GlazedYeti]

Merry Christmas! TerminalMontage just made a community post about KZbin’s new notification settings (explaining why your subscribers aren’t getting notified). Maybe you should make a post/video about the same thing. Doesn’t seem to be as personally insidious (just general KZbin awfulness) as it seemed at first. Hope y’all are blessed

[@roblodocus2539]

Merry Christmas man! And wishing your family a happy new year. Hopefully this one will be a little smoother than 2023 with the health issues etc! And finally, thanks for another year of fantastic content! Catch you soon.

[@danielyuan9862]

I was thinking that was an easy puzzle after the black pawn takes on b5. But then Martin pushed the button

[@levialston518]

This one I just left alone

[@nelsonlopez1228]

Another great video!!

[@vladislavshevchenko634]

That's the first puzzle I managed to solve on my own as black. So I stopped to share before I switch to the white And for white it's a stalemate if the black promotes to a queen or bishop, but If black promotes into a rook white king will have one move to get out of the mating net

[@farouqbaiti4315]

I really enjoyed that puzzle. I also solved all the moves. I also found the brilliant move for White!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Zygnity]

Minor Suggestion for your puzzle videos: Only do videos on these composed puzzles for the Chess Adventures series. Gonna be honest, there are other series that I miss as well like martin or the rating climb

[@MrBabadis]

Rating climb was the peak content the channel had. Should to another rapid one

[@fifiwoof1969]

PLEASE! We're GAGGING for Chess Adventures videos from Puzzle Island.

[@stevedownie1378]

Frankly I am kind of disappointed with Nelsi's content recently. Way too many puzzles that are maybe interesting but completely unrealistic. I would like more fun & education content.

[@Zygnity]

@@stevedownie1378 agreed, i still prefer his content more than gotham most occassions, but he has had a choke point

[@danielyuan9862]

​@@stevedownie1378Puzzles like these aren't designed to be realistic in the first place.

[@TealBanana22]

This position ain’t never gonna happen

[@wertelka_1]

I'm surprised that I saw the stalemate trap

[@andarerYT]

What if, before crowning, you move the bishop to let him crown his own pawn first? Wouldn't the position of their queen still be too far to stop you from checkmating with yours? Edit: nvm they move their bishop and it's a discovered mate

[@perfect_harmony4348]

Both these statements are wrong. Moving the bishop is not mate because the queen is hanging. The correct move is Qa8 guarding mate and white is winning

[@muhammadsaifaanshaik8329]

Why can't black move the bishop to avoid stalemate? After all, if the pawn promotes, wouldn't Qh1 be mate?

[@kennyostrom3098]

see above, white bishop moves to denies that square, simultaneously getting out of the way of whites own multiple checkmate threats.

[@FaerieDragonZook]

What happens at the end if, instead of getting the queen or the rook, you move the bishop, to remove the stalemate trap? Who wins, or is it still a draw?

[@landen99]

Black could move bishop before getting queen to prevent stalemate at 7:47

[@danielj.8876]

Ok, but then d8=Q, Bxd8 Rb7 and you can never queen because Rxb1 would follow. Also black would eventually lose the game because whites rooks are now free.

[@muhammadsaifaanshaik8329]

@@danielj.8876 After Whites move: d8 = Q, Black can play Qh1 mate

[@EnverHalilHoxha1917]

​@@danielj.8876yeah after pawn d8 white is mated by queen h1 so not enough time

[@ifer1280]

I got both of them 🤘

[@Nitr0don]

What happens if white goes for the h pawn immediately instead of playing a4? It seems to me that the king would barely reach b1 in time, so I'm probably missing something. Edit: black would play 6...a3, easily securing a win.

[@Pendergast891]

if the king goes after the h pawn immediately black can push that pawn forward and if the king takes then it would be 1 space further back than what was shown in the video and actually end up getting checked instead of stalemated when black does eventually gets the queen and ultimately check mated if the king doesnt capture after black pushes the h pawn then that h pawn will keep pushing and become a queen if white moves the king at all black could also go pawn to b5 and in this case the pawns will promote 1 turn earlier because they could move 2 spaces instead of the 1 that was shown in the video, which would end up in white getting mated

[@oldfilmguy9413]

I actually solved one!! Whoo Hoo!!

[@chasezhao243]

What's your other channel?

[@AbouTaim-Lille]

Why would the white start by pushing his pawn twice ? Why not pishing the king and grab the pawn first.

[@ozelot131]

If you don't push the pawn, it's a loss for white. 1. Qg4 b5 2. a3 a5 3. Kxh4 a5 4. Kg4 b4 and the white king is too slow to capture the pawn. If he doesn't play a3 then 1. Qg4 b5 2. Qxh4 b4 3. Qg4 a5 4. Qf4 a4 5. Qe3 b3 6. axb3 a3 7. Qd2 a2 8. Qc2 a1=Q. It's also not possible to get the stalemate because black promotes on a1 and not on b1

[@AbouTaim-Lille]

@@ozelot131 You r right. Actually the white pieces are very badly placed. Whereas the black pieces are positioned perfectly. Look at the black pawn on the left. If it was in the middle then the king will be able to collect it in his way to the right side and be able to collect the other surviving pawn too.

[@mindylowe4372]

Why can't you play h5? 2:14

[@mindylowe4372]

I mean h3.

[@fantomghost6213]

Great puzzl3e

[@christopherheckman7957]

5:24 The point of Kh5 is for White to put his king on h8, and if Black promotes to a queen, White is stalemated. As for what to do if White doesn't head for h8, I think I've seen this type of maneuver before, where Black can nudge the White king over to h8 all by herself. That locked position of pawns and rooks (pawns on d6, e5, and f6) looks vaguely familiar. And I found another Shinkman puzzle (which was actually corrected by A. Cheron): N7/PPPPPPPP/K1k3rB/b1pnnb1p/8/1r6/8/8 (White to play and win.)

[@WhydTheyChangeOurNames]

Tbh, White deserves to lose this. Trapping both of their rooks like this for absolutely no value

[@CliffordGate-uo2gk]

This position is not legal, is it?)

[@plokenv]

The king the bishop (black) and the 2 rooks (white) looks like a pp, donf u agree? 💀

[@danielbillings1876]

Anyone else automatically “like” the video before watching it because it’s a guarantee that Nelson’s video will be outstanding? Or just me?

[@ottovangogh9477]

👁️🦓👁️

[@Boys_Kitchen]

It's not an draw .. instead of promoting queen...black can move bishop to let black pawn promote..then take that white queen by bishop

[@sexygeek8996]

then the rooks are free to move and can easily checkmate the black king

[@compiling]

That doesn't work, because it gives white time to play Rb7 and stop you from getting a queen.

[@abepower]

You're on the right track 👣, move the black bishop to b6, then let the pawn ♟ promote to the queen 👸, and then don't even take the queen, instead upgrade your pawn ♟ to a Queen 👸 and meanwhile whites king 🤴 is stuck in the corner and you deliver a checkmate on h1

[@realndex]

Then the will move the bishop anywhere you take the queen and then re8 checkmate

[@abepower]

The white bishop moving makes no difference because the black bishop is still on target for the white queen to capture it

[@TCG-Collector77]

3rd comment

[@Stranepjeme]

Black can promote knight instead and slowly take all white pieces from behind and win the game.