Questions tagged [checkmate]
Questions relating to checkmating.
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Mate Solving or problem solving software
I have some positions in my games which engine analysis indicates that some lines (not the ones I played) lead to a checkmate in 6 or 7 or 10 moves.
But normal engines are not reliable here so I use ...
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Why is this a checkmate?
I'm new to chess and I'm confused about a puzzle I was practicing.
As you can see my black queen has put the white king in check, but I'm confused how this is possible if a rook is right next to my ...
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Unique checkmates count analysis
How many unique checkmates are there from this starting position?
I can only see 5 lines on lichess from a game I've played and have tried several different moves.
Mate in 4 is the fastest but I've ...
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Is there any sequence of premoves that guarantees checkmate in this particular King + Queen vs King endgame?
King + Queen vs. King is perhaps the most basic winning endgame and known to be mate in at most ten moves. However, I am wondering if there is any sequence of premoves that guarantees checkmate? For ...
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Timeout vs Insufficient Material
This is not a new topic but it did happen in my game at chess.com. I was playing white and played the only legal move h7 and was checkmated on the next move.
My question is: What will happen if I just ...
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Checkmate in ω² moves with finitely many pieces
The post Checkmate in ω
moves? has inspired a lot of discussion and mathematical research into positions on an infinite chessboard where white can mate in a transfinite amount of moves. The current ...
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A puzzle where you must find the mate in 3 solution but avoid mate in 2 and mate in 1 solutions?
I want to see if a puzzle could exist where you must avoid finding mate in 1 or 2 but just find the mate in 3 solution.
This is not subjective it is a hard math problem to make a move that forces mate ...
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Is it possible for a white piece to deliver check to the black king, but for black's counter move to result in white getting checkmated?
Is it possible for a white piece to deliver check to the black king, but for black's counter move to result in white getting checkmated?
Has this happened in games between top players?
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How much would chess change if Black always had the last move?
In a hypothetical minor variant, could White's first-move advantage be compensated for by Black's right to last move?
Normally, White wins have White play N+1 plies to Black's N. How would the game ...
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Why did I lose -> I thought I can swap king and castle to avoid checkmate? [duplicate]
[FEN "6nN/Bp1k2pp/2n5/p7/Q4R1P/5pP1/P3qN2/4K2R w K - 0 1"]
As you can see my king got checkmated through the enemy's queen and pawn.
My question is, why is this a checkmate? I haven't moved ...
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The king had a place to move, how is this checkmate?
The king had a place to move, how is this checkmate?
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What is the highest number of pieces from one side that can be involved in a checkmate?
What is the highest number of pieces from one side that can be involved in a checkmate? "Involved in a checkmate" is defined below.
A non-king piece is involved in a checkmate 'if removing ...
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Checkmate with only relevant pieces
What is the maximum number of black and white pieces which are relevant in a checkmate position (by White)? That is if any piece (black or white) was removed from the board, the checkmate would not be ...
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Most pieces involved in checkmate in actual game?
I recall seeing a number of chess games where a lot of pieces are involved in the final checkmate, and was curious to know what is the maximum number of pieces of one player A that have been involved ...
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Mate-in-N problems where N scales indefinitely with board size
Motivation - Long range mating patterns
This question is inspired by my recent interest in infinite chess and the post on MathOverflow Checkmate in ω moves?. Since my chess endgame skills are quite ...
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Running out of time mid promotion to checkmate. Who wins?
In a casual blitz game I had with my friend, my last move was to promote a pawn, to ladder mate my opponent (there was already a rook on the 7th). I moved the pawn, but while I was reaching for the ...
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A position with the only legal move resulting in checkmate
Theoretically, is it possible that for some position, the only legal move for a side leads to a checkmate (that is, the opposite king gets checkmated)? If so, has this ever occurred in a real game?
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Why is it not a checkmate?
I am new to chess. I have tried to learn checkmate from the video lesson in chess24 website. There, in one question, it marked my answer wrong and said that it was not checkmate. Can anyone please ...
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King and short rook checkmate
Suppose White has a king and a range-x rook and black has a bare king on a chessboard with dimensions y times y.
What is the minimum value of x such that for all sufficiently large y, White, moving ...
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Can a pawn move 2 spaces if doing so would cause en passant mate?
You cannot place your King in check, the en passant could be refused and because you are not placing your King in check directly it seems you can move your pawn 2 spaces. However, just like castling, ...
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Are there any hard mate-in-2 problems?
I'm interested to know if there are any particularly challenging mate-in-2 problems. Since the second move will be essentially forced, the problem essentially comes down to 1 move. Typically, the ...
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How to checkmate with king + two knights vs king + pawn
King + two knights vs a king is a book draw, as the knights cannot get the enemy king into a checkmating position (only a stalemating position), because of the inherent clumsy nature of the knight. ...
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What is the fastest loss by a GM in a FIDE classical game?
What is the shortest FIDE classical game a grandmaster lost? It can be either resigning or checkmate. The opponent doesn't necessarily need to be GM. Forfeits don't count. Only serious games count, ...
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Can a castling checkmate be engineered from this position?
I get the following position pretty often in online bullet as White. It's mate in a few (for instance, 9. Bf4+ Kc5 10. Qd5+ Kb6 11.Qb5#). Needless to say, the setup is dubious.
This looks like a prime ...
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Why is this the wrong move?
I am new to chess. I am playing puzzles on chess.com. I made a move which I thought was checkmate, but it tells me I made the wrong move.
It looks to me like the King is in check by the bishop. But no ...
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Can I capture my own pieces?
This may seem like a very amateur question, but I was playing chess with my dad, and when my dad won, I realized that I could've captured my own pawn in order to evade checkmate. I tried to do this ...
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Can a rook and King checkmate a bare King without zugzwang?
Can a rook and a king force a checkmate against a bare king that starts in the center if the opponent was allowed to pass?
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How often do super GMs blunder mate in 1?
Yesterday (5th April 2023) Nakamura blundered a pretty mate in 1 against Caruana in the Chessable Masters:
[Title "Caruana - Nakamura, Chessable Masters 2023"]
[fen "Rb6/5kp1/8/1r1P3P/...
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With only a king left, how many moves remaining until a draw?
I am a beginner in chess. If I have only a king left, how many moves does my opponent have to mate me?
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My opponent won despite his king having no legal moves
My opponent won despite his king having no legal moves. Why?
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What is the longest current tablebase mate with a unique optimal line?
Having been inspired by an article on ChessBase.com, what is the longest current tablebase mate with a unique optimal line?
By unique, I mean for each of the winning side's plies, there is only one ...
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Mate in One the Missing King
The post "A mysterious mate in one" made me think of one of my last problems which is also a Mate-in-One with no black King:
[Title "White to move and mate in one"]
[FEN &...
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Longest sequence of unique legal moves for one player, always in check and ending in checkmate
I recently played a bullet game, in which I thought I was in checkmate, but then realized I had one legal move, this then repeated again and again 6 times until ultimately I was in checkmate. I share ...
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Checkmating the bare king with 3 knights – can the mate be forced on any edge square?
In the case where White has King and 3 Knights, and Black has just the bare King, it is known that White can force checkmate. But can White in fact pick any edge square in advance, and force the ...
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Has checkmate ever been achieved by castling kingside in a high-level game?
Has checkmate ever been achieved by castling kingside in a high-level game?
I asked an AI large language model, but it listed games which certainly didn't achieve checkmate with castling kingside. I ...
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Has checkmate ever been achieved by castling queenside in a high-level game?
This is to complement the kingside variant of that question
Has checkmate ever been achieved by a castling queen side in a high-level game?
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Most "heavy" model mate in a game
A model mate, to recall, is a mate where
a) any flight (including the standing place) of the enemy king is attacked exactly once;
b) no friendly piece (except king and pawns) idles around.
c) (...
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What is the largest n such that discrete forced mate in one through mate in "n" exist?
This is admittedly a bit of an obscure question, so I apologize for the awkward wording of the question. To begin, assume you are playing as White, and that a "forcing move" is any move that ...
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Mate With 3 Knights
How do I checkmate with 3 knights? I know 2 is a draw, but with 3 is not.
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Rook and promoted Bishop vs Rook endgame--forced win or draw?
I've recently been trying to learn the queen vs rook and rook and bishop vs rook endgames, and I've found it interesting how close the margin of victory vs draw is. I was thinking about whether the ...
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On an Torodial board, which pieces are needed to checkmate?
I saw this question On an infinite board, which pieces are needed to checkmate? and was inspired by it.
Many mating combinations won't suffice on a toroidal board.
For example, queen vs king will be a ...
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What is the farthest away a game can be from a guaranteed checkmate?
What is the maximum number of moves away from checkmate that a player can be where checkmate is guaranteed? There are many positions that are a guaranteed win for a player if played perfectly, right? (...
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How is this checkmate? I’m new to chess
I’m new to chess.
How is this checkmate?
[FEN ""]
[Date "Dec 31 2019"]
[White "User 21050 (Lvl 3 500pts)"]
[Black "Computer (Level 20 3000+pts)"]
1.Nf3 a5 2.Ng5 h5 3.Nxf7 g6 4.Nxh8 g5 5.Ng6 Ra6 6....
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Mate with both hands: Result?
Constructed case: In a tournament (LoC Tournament Rules apply, no rapid, no blitz) White plays d7-d8Q by placing the new Queen on d8 with the right hand and removing the pawn d7 with the left. White ...
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Strategy of Bishop and Knight Checkmate [duplicate]
I am a beginner when it comes to handling King, Bishop and Knight vs Kingfor a checkmate.
Can I know what is the strategy to follow in the steps that ultimately leads to the checkmate?
This is ...
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Is it possible to checkmate with knight and king against king?
I would like to clarify two things:
Is it possible to checkmate with only a knight and a king against a lone king?
What will happen when one side has a king and knight and the other has just a king, ...
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What is the longest forced win with 3 to 6 pieces (ignoring 50 & 75 move rules)?
I am wondering, what endgame, with 3 to 6 pieces, has the longest checkmate with optimal play? Right now, the longest I'm aware of is the two knights versus one pawn endgame, which in certain ...
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Minimal forced checkmate
A forced checkmate is a situation in which the player whose turn it is has only legal moves which put the other player in checkmate.
I’m searching for the minimal forced checkmate (the smallest amount ...
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What is the required material to force a king move checkmate?
A fun thing to do is to try to achieve specific "achievements" (like these) in real games.
One such achievement is to checkmate with a king move. As the king itself obviously can't deliver ...
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When checkmate is impossible in a position
The laws of chess say
1.5. If the position is such that neither player can possibly checkmate the opponent’s king, the game is drawn (see Article 5.2.2).
5.2.2. The game is drawn when a position has ...
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