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The most common form of chess puzzle is white/black to win in X.

I'm curious whether a form of "white to lose in X" exists. For instance, a position that seems winning for white, but if they play a particular move, there is now mate in X against them. The first move would be the worst possible, but every subsequent move would be expected to be the best possible move.

(Not to be confused with selfmate puzzles, in which the first player constantly makes a losing move.)

(Inspired by a game I just played in which my position was completely winning, except I think I played the one move that gave my opponent an unexpected mate in 3.)

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  • What do you mean by 'every subsequent move would be expected to be the best possible move'. Best in what way? After the key move, is the loss not already in hand, so that it doesn't matter what white's move 2..X is? That's how I understood your comparison with a self-mate, where white may have to maintain his loss ... but here he doesn't?
    – user30536
    Commented Aug 1, 2023 at 7:06
  • Best in the normal sense. Black is trying to mate as quickly as possible, and white is trying to delay mate as long as possible. (As opposed to a self mate, where white is trying to accelerate being mated.)
    – Steve Bennett
    Commented Aug 1, 2023 at 7:09

3 Answers 3

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Yes, you're not the first being interested in this. Look at this position that I took from my answer to a related question:

  [FEN "k1B5/p1P1p3/P3P3/8/1p6/bpp5/qnp3R1/2K4B w - - 0 1"]

After Bd7, White loses in 1, even though every other legal move would have won.

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Similar things do exist. I recently saw a YouTube video by Eric Rosen where one side made a move that sort of "self-mated" them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB9feImSQVo

This might not be exactly what you want, but it's in the ballpark, I think.

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    Definitely in the ballpark, great video :)
    – Steve Bennett
    Commented Aug 1, 2023 at 11:29
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I'm not sure I understand the question correctly, but when I was a little kid I once played this game, where I mixed up the moves (14. Re4 Qxh2 15. d3 is the line) and tried to set up one last trap. After move 18 it is Black to play and lose in 2.

[Title "Black to play and lose in 2"]
[fen "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"]
[StartPly "35"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 8. Nc3 Ncb4 9. a3 Nxc2+ 10. Kd1 Nxa1 11. Nxd5 Kd6 12. Re1 c6 13. Rxe5 Qh4 14. d3 Bg4 15. Re6+ Kd7 16. Re4 Bxf3+ 17. gxf3 Qxf2 18. Bf4 cxd5 19. Bb5+ Kd8 20. Re8#
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