12 August 2015

Reconstruction

This problem was posted on Facebook with "Black to move, mate in two." There are two simple checkmate patterns and it seemed that both could be easily refuted. After I failed, as did many others, even arguing that the correct solution was impossible, a question was posed. What was White's prior move?

Black to move

3 comments:

  1. I have to imagine that Qa8 is the move. Either this is simpler than it was made out to be, or I am missing something pretty big.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it is simple. Nonetheless, I was one who pointed out O-O-O until asked about White's previous move.

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  2. Qa8 and Qh1# - white cannot castle because his last move was with either the rook or king.

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