Friday, February 15, 2013

Checkmate in 3


White to move and checkmate in 3.

8/8/7b/8/1NpN4/2p1p3/2p1P3/kbK5 w - - 0 1

Loyd, 1792

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

After 1. Ne6! Black is in Zugzwang!

Any move by the black squared bishop will result in its capture, thus forcing black to abandon the c2 square.

1. Ne6!, B any move
2. NxB, Ba2 (forced)
3. Nxc2 #

Anonymous said...

1. Ne6, Bf4(Bf8, Bg5, Bg7)
2. Nxf4(Nxf8, Nxg5, Nxg7), Ba2
3. NxC2#

Anonymous said...

1. Ne6!

If 1. ... Ba2 2. Nxc2#.

Else, Black can only move the Bishop on h6. But to wherever Black moves it, White's Knight on e6 can capture it, forcing

2. ... Ba2 3. Nxc2#.

Anonymous said...

Rather contrived, but instructive nonetheless.

1- Ne6; Bf8

Other moves of the dark-square bishop also result in its capture.

2- Nxf8...

Black is now in zugzwang, forced to abandon the c2 pawn and to cut off his king's last escape square.

2- ... ; Ba2
3- Nxc2#

Cortex said...

At least, it is spelled Loyd this time! Congratulations!

But Sam isn't that old!!

Samuel Loyd lived between 30.1.1841 and 10.4.1911

Full source:

Loyd, Samuel
Chess Monthly, Feb 1860

The answer, to put it summarily, is

1.Ne6
2.Ne6xB
3.Nxc2#

Method: if black is forced to play Ba2, then it's mate. The only piece that hinders the zugzwang is the not-so-mobile Bh6. Remove it and...

Oleg Mezjuev said...

1. Ne6 (with the idea to eliminate the bishop on h6 and to force the bishop on b1 to move away from defending the pawn on c2)...

1. ... Bf4/g5/g7/f8 2. Nxf4/g5/g7/f8 Ba2 3. Nxc2#

Casey Abell said...

1 Ne6 Bg5 or Bf4
2 NxB Ba2
3 NxP#

Cute problem with hard-to-find knight move.

Michael Hofmann said...

Ne6