Sunday, June 05, 2011

Another checkmate in 3


White to move and checkmate in 3. No computer assistance please.

8/4K3/8/1R6/3kP3/8/8/4Q3 w - - 0 1

Another Lloyd classic

16 comments:

Joshua Green said...

1. Rb3! Ke5
    1. ... Kc~  2. Qc3#
2. Re3 Kd4/Kf4  3. Qc3#/Qg3#

Anonymous said...

rb3 han

Anonymous said...

Late night, but luckily I can sleep tomorrow.
:-)

I found this solution. I hope the right.
1. Rb3 (Restrict the movements of the black king)
1...Ke5 (If 1...Kc5 or 1...Kc4 2. Qc3#)
2. Re3 Kf4 (if 2...Kd4 3. Qc3#)
3. Qg3#

Best regards
Stef

Zugzwang said...

1. Rb3 Kc4/c5 2. Qc3#
1 ... Ke5 2. Re3
2 ... Kf4 Qg3#
2 ... Kd4 Qc3#

prof.S.G.Bhat said...

This problem drove me nuts before the fruit of solution was born.It is known that mate can not be forced at the center of the board with Q and R only. Hence to keep the pawn is a must.Finally I got it.
1Rb3 Ke5(toughest; if 1... Kc5 2Qc3# Is mate in two allowed?)
2Re3 only move to free Q from the task of supporting pawn.
2.... Kd4 or Kf4
3Kc3# or Kg3#The symmetry around e file is pleasing.

Yancey Ward said...

I was forced to give up on this one and go look it up. I did try Rb3 at one point, but I don't know if I would have ever found 2.Re3 in the line where black plays Ke5. A very pretty, and quiet, quiet second move. I just couldn't force myself to quit looking at the Qg3 line.

Lucymarie said...

Mate in 3. Sam Loyd.

If I had not been familiar with Sam Loyd's penchant for lining up the pieces in a straight line, and also for mirror image variations, I don't think I would have found this.


1. Rb3 Ke5 [1. ... Kc4/5 2. Qc3#]
2. Re3 Kd4 [2. ... Kf4 3. Qg3# ]
3. Qc3#

Black totally eclipsed said...

1.Rb3...(1...Kc4 2.Qb4#)
a)1...Kc5 2.Qb4+ Kc6 3.Rb3#(3.Qb6#)
b)1...Ke5 2.Re3!...(2...Kd4 3.Qc3#) 2...Kf4 3.Qg3#

prof.S.G.Bhat said...

Dear Yancey,
you are a puzzle to me. No solution is published although I have sent one in which 2 Re3 comes into picture. After giving up you "go look it up" what does it mean?and what is Qg3 line?Did you look into another site?

Anonymous said...

1.Rb3 Ke5 (both Kc4 and Kc5, Qc3#) 2.Re3 Kd4, 3.Qc3#; 2..Kf4, 3.Qg3#

Chessforeva Dev said...

Rb3

Anonymous said...

Other comments?
Not received?

Best regards
Stef

Yancey Ward said...

Prof Bhat,

I found the solution on line- that is what I meant by "look it up". In this particular case, I found this Loyd puzzle at http://www.wtharvey.com/loyd.html.

The Qg3 line I referred to is this one:

1. Rb3 Ke5
2. Qg3

Not finding a mate in 3 is what led me to abandon 1.Rb3. 2.Re3 never occurred to me as a move. After a first quiet move, I was too dogmatic that the second move couldn't also be quiet.

prof.S.G.Bhat said...

Kudos to Anand.He won the match on the whole and also everyday.

prof.S.G.Bhat said...

Dear Yancey,
The site you mentioned is wonderful. In this problem I arrived at 1Rb3 to drive king to e5.Then I had the task of delivering mate as well as protect the e pawn.First I tried 2Qe3 only to realise that it would be stalemate.Then the task was given to the rook 2Re3.

Cortex said...

Full reference:

Loyd, Samuel
The Albion (New York) 28th Mar 1857