New answers tagged checkmate
1
Here are some problems where White to play can mate in time only by four sacrifices.
The problems' citations are as follows:
Michael Schreckenbach, Opfer-Opfer-Matt, Apr 2006; 1st Thematic Competition Opfer-Opfer-Matt, 3rd Honorable Mention. P1111480
Baldur Kozdon, Opfer-Opfer-Matt Apr 2006, no 254. P1177452
[Title "Michael Schreckenbach. #6"]
[fen ...
2
A matting pattern refers to a specific configuration, not to a sequence of moves, thus the hole maneuver starting with 21...Nh4!? has no name as far as I know.
That being said, when the Queen delivers mate just next to the King, either in front or diagonally, it is known as 'Kiss of death'.
https://www.chess.com/lessons/how-to-checkmate/kiss-of-death-...
1
Not an exact match by any means, but the idea of using the knight as a "bait" to open the file and expose the h7 square is very similar to the fishing pole trap in the Berlin Defence.
13
There are already many good answers here that address your question from a hypothetical point of view. I want to add to this discussion some empirical data coming from AI chess, based on the arXiv preprint Assessing Game Balance with AlphaZero: Exploring Alternative Rule Sets in Chess (2020) by Nenad Tomašev, Ulrich Paquet, Demis Hassabis and Vladimir ...
-2
If stalemate were a loss for the player who couldn't move, a good player with the white pieces would be able to beat even the best possible player with the black pieces. The only reason that White's advantage isn't decisive is that black has substantial opportunities to steer the game into positions where White would be able to stalemate Black, but not able ...
2
It's rather rare that a mating pattern has a name. (Note that there is a book "1001 Deadly Checkmates" by GM Nunn, but I bet only a handful are named.) That said, the idea of sacrificing a rook and "replacing" it with the stronger queen was already given by Damiano around 1500 - 2nd diagram here. Specifically, "Damiano's Mate" ...
2
I would argue that a stalemate can offer as decisive an outcome as a checkmate, and a more decisive outcome than a draw.
Chess is like a military battle in that it requires strategy and tactics, and has many interesting nuances like sacrifices, pins, and so forth which have real life correspondents. Of course the nice thing about chess is that the battle ...
22
Absolutely not. Making stalemate a win would be a sure way to make for less interesting chess. Any rule change which makes it easier to convert a small material advantage to a win, will ipso facto make it less attractive to sacrifice material for attacking chances. One of the things that makes gambits playable is the fact that, if the attack fails, the ...
7
If stalemates were wins chess would be simpler and therefore less interesting to me. Many tense struggles would become simple wins. Many "study-like" endings would become trivial.
Would these be replaced with more hard-fought middle games? Perhaps. bailing out to drawn ending would be less common I suppose.
Endings and Transition to endings are ...
6
More decisive games? Certainly.
But that does make it a better game? (I.E. is it a satisfactory solution to the problem of high drawrate?) Stalemates can occur in positions which are not vastly advantageous endgames but more or less equal, just like checkmates can. But the point of chess is to look for checkmates. Having to watch out for stalemates in the ...
0
I was unable to locate a question in the main text, so I'll answer the one from the title. Would there be more decisive games? - Absolutely yes, since your proposition effectively turns a lot of currently drawn positions into winning ones.
14
The game would definitely become way less interesting, as many endgames that offer a chance to keep fighting would become hopeless.
There would be more games that end in a win (so yes, more decisive games), but not necessarely more attacks, as those hardly ever end in a stalemate. It's hard to make a valid prediction without trying it out, but it's ...
5
After playing around in Lichess's analysis page, I found a mate in 10. Throwing the moves into chess.com's analysis page provides further confirmation. It has a few wholly unique lines, and some dualed ones, making it reminiscent of a chess problem per @Hauke Reddmann's above comment.
[FEN ""]
[Title "#10 After 3 Moves"]
1. e4 d5 2. h3 ...
2
We can reach #9 within only 4 moves:
[Title "Reaching #9 after 4 moves"]
[FEN ""]
1. e4 d5 2. Qf3 Kd7 3. Bc4 Kc6 4. Nc3 d4!
5. e5+ Kd7 6. Qd5+ Ke8 7. Qxf7+ Kd7 8. e6+ Kc6 9. Qf3+ Kb6
10. Na4+ Ka5 11. b4+ Kxb4 12. Qb3+ Ka5 13. Qb5#
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