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[FEN "7k/8/8/8/6p1/4QpPb/5PpP/6K1 w - - 0 1"]

I found this interesting and unique chess problem online while surfing 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 composed by the Hungarian Engineer, Ottó Bláthy.

It's White's turn. Can you find the winning move continuation for White?

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    Calling a problem "creative" seems like meaningless puffery -- better to make the title some concrete description that actually distinguishes the problem from others. If it is truly creative then readers will judge that for themselves. Show, don't tell.
    – nanoman
    Commented Feb 21, 2021 at 6:05
  • 2
    A friendly reminder: discussion whether (multiple) questions like these are appropriate for Chess Stack Exchange belong on Chess Meta, not in the comments.
    – Glorfindel ♦
    Commented Feb 21, 2021 at 10:33

2 Answers 2

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If White can get the Black king to the first rank, then it will not be fast enough to catch the g-pawn from promoting. White starts by playing 1. Qg5, and after 1...Kh7 2. Qf6 Kg8 3. Qh6, the White queen can simply imitate the Black king's movements until she can start forcing the king down towards the first rank.

[FEN "7k/8/8/8/6p1/4QpPb/5PpP/6K1 w - - 0 1"]


 1. Qg5 Kh7 2. Qf6 Kg8 3. Qh6 Kf7 4. Qg5 Kf8 5. Qg6 Ke7 6. Qf5 Ke8 7. Qf6 Kd7 8. Qe5 Kd8 9. Qe6 Kc7 10. Qd5 Kc8 11. Qd6 Kb7 12. Qc5 Kb8 13. Qc6 Ka7 14. Qc8 Kb6 15. Qd7 Ka6 16. Qc7 Kb5 17. Qd6 Ka5 18. Qc6 Kb4 19. Qd5 Ka4 20. Qc5 Kb3 21. Qd4 Ka3 22. Qc4 Kb2 23. Qd3 Ka2 24. Qc3 Kb1 25. Qh8 Kc2 26. Qxh3

As to whether this is the fastest win, I'm not sure.

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    basically 'Rule of the square' ?
    – BCLC
    Commented Feb 21, 2021 at 11:06
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I'm not sure about the fastest checkmate, but this should be the general procedure:

Use the queen to force the Black king to the first rank, in such a way that when it moves to the corner, the queen is on b2 or d2.

Then

play Qd2-h6 or Qb2-h8 with the intention to sacrifice the queen for the bishop and promote the g-pawn.

Black

can't prevent this, because the king is one rank too far behind

After

the g-pawn promotes to queen, it can easily get rid of the other black pawns, free the White king and mate will follow soon.

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  • 1
    basically 'Rule of the square' ?
    – BCLC
    Commented Feb 21, 2021 at 11:06

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