Business strategy concept with chess pieces, wooden cubes on wooden background side view.
Give yourself a mental workout!
About this Puzzle
Source: Author: Type of Puzzle: To Move: Notes:
Dwight Shaulis László Polgár Fastest Mate White White has an obvious advantage. What are the fewest number of moves to secure the checkmate?
Solution
Open this section to see the full solution.
White can achieve checkmate in just twomoves, but… the first move must set you up for a checkmate no matter how Black responds. That move is:
White – Rg5
After that move, the White King controls d3-f3, protects the Knight and the White Rook controls the 5th rank. Black’s response is limited to one King move and five Knight moves…
Black (Option 1) – Kf4
The results in the first checkmate, with White’s Rook being protected by the White Bishop…
White – Rg4#
So, if moving the King doesn’t work, what about the Knight? It has six possible places to move. The first five are shown below:
Black (Options 2-5) – Ka8, Ka6, Kb5, Ke6 or Ke8
Any of those moves results in the next checkmate, because Black’s Knight is no longer blocking the White’s Black Bishop’s diagonal (shown in yellow) which prevents White’s King from escaping to f4 when White plays…
White – Bb7#
That leaves one final option for Black – move the Knight to protect the King from that attack…
Black (Option 6) – Kd5
Unfortunately for Black, this leads to the last checkmate…
White – Bf5#
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