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[FEN "3Q4/7Q/3rp3/2rkr3/2rrr3/7K/8/8 w - - 0 1"]

I found this interesting and unique chess problem online, on the internet. Disclaimer: This is not necessarily a position from a game. It's just a beautiful composition wherein your objective as White is to checkmate the black king. White is moving from bottom to top and Black is moving from top to bottom.

This problem was made by Filip Bondarenko and published in Feenschach in 1960, although this version is cut one move short.

White to move. Can anyone solve this?

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  • 11
    I think that your disclaimer that this isn't a position from a real game isn't really necessary :)
    – John Coleman
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 11:35
  • I am fairly sure that agadmator displayed this game
    – fartgeek
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 15:13
  • There is a mobile game that has exactly this setup: play.google.com/store/apps/…
    – SnakeDoc
    Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 22:50
  • Was the previous moves Qh4-d8+ Rc6-Rd6?
    – Hans Olsson
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 12:08
  • 2
    And again clickbait title and just posting other peoples riddles. If the chess.stack will allow such kind of content I think there will be an influx of it as it is a great repfishing strategy. But I won't complain anymore, as it seems that this is wanted.
    – Kami Kaze
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 12:30

1 Answer 1

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It's checkmate in 20 moves. White's queens circle around the board giving checks, and Black interposes horizontally/vertically moving pieces. Black only has one choice because the other piece is pinned from the previous check. That goes well, until the pawn needs to move sideways:

[FEN "3Q4/7Q/3rp3/2rkr3/2rrr3/7K/8/8 w - - 0 1"]

1. Qb7+ Rc6 2. Qa5+ Rc5 3. Qb3+ Rc4 4. Qd2+ Rd4 5. Qf3+ Re4 6. Qg5+ e5 7. Qf7+ Re6 8. Qd8+ Rd6
9. Qb7+ Rc6 10. Qa5+ Rc5 11. Qb3+ Rc4 12. Qd2+ Rd4 13. Qf3+ e4 14. Qg5+ Re5 15. Qf7+ Re6 16. Qd8+ Rd6
17. Qb7+ Rc6 18. Qa5+ Rc5 19. Qb3+ Rc4 20. Qd2# 1-0
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  • 16
    Very pleasing to go through the moves
    – DGK
    Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 10:56

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