Meanwhile, a puzzle.
White to play. Mate in two. I’ll make this a little larger today so you can see the notation more easily.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE
I hope you will make use of the links to the various Catholic concerns which I post in these daily “omnium gatherums”. You and they both benefit.
Loading ...
1. Qc3+ forcing KxQ
2. Nc5#
Can’t see a mate in two yet — only this mate in 3:
1. Rc2 disc + QxB (forced)
2. Rxb2+ BxR (forced)
3. QxB mate
Will keep looking.
Really strange constellation on the chessboard.
That said, the solution, I think, is 1. Nc1+ b4xNc1Q 2. Rc2++.
The king is in check not only by the rook (which the new queen could capture, sacrificing herself to the knight on a3), but the move also freed the way for the bishop on g8. Also, he can’t flee either to the b row, which is now empty, nor to a1, which is his own piece, nor can he capture the knight on a3 which is protected by the bishop on f8. For similar reasons, black had no other choice than capturing in the first move.
Black does have the other choice: 1. … d4xNc1Q; but as on the b1 the king wouldn’t be only in check by the queen but also the knight on a3, the blocking pawn on b2 doesn’t help. 2. Rc2 will still do the trick, or any other move that gets the rook away from c4 and doesn’t get him to c5. We don’t, then, have the fun of mating with a double-check; so I’d suggest RxR, just for the fun of it.
1. Rc3+ Rc4
2. Qb3++
I assume that DCLex meant Qb3 for the first move, and that combo seems to work.
I had seen A.S. Haley’s first move, but had not seen David L.s counter to that move, which implies that black is not forced into QxB to respond to Haley’s first move.
Imrahil points out the strange board, and I have to agree: is it actually possible for Black’s bishop to get to a1 with the pawn at b2? And of course Black seems to be dead set on trapping his own queen by sandwiching her between pawns and rooks.