White to play and mate in TWO.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
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Very tricky. I want to play 2. Kd2# (or if 1. exf3 then 2. Ke2#). But I don’t know how to prevent 1. … Rxc2 or 1. … Rxd3, blocking the king’s advance.
What’s the first move?
Black is in Zugzwang. His King can’t legally move; if his Knight moves, White’s King can go to d2 for a discovered checkmate; same result if his pawn captures White’s pawn on e2. So 1. Qb2 leaves Black with no option but to move his Rook.
And no matter what square he chooses for his Rook, the White Queen is then free to move to h8, mate.
@A.S. Haley:
That is elegant, but I don’t see what prevents 1. Qb2 fxe2. Where is white’s mating move after this?
Never mind. 2. Qb7# wins. Very nice!
The A.S. Haley solution offered here is better than I could do but it fails in this scenario:
Qb2
xe2
Qc3 does not produce check, nor does Kxe2.
Both of those moves are required so mate can be achieved in 3 moves, not 2.
Is there a foolproof 2 move scenario?
I should know better than to respond to these challenges. Thanks for the explanation David L.