62
votes
Demystifying Seirawan-Kasparov 1983 king and pawn endgame
In this game Kasparov is showing a perfect demonstration of the triangulation technique in order to Zugzwang the white king.
To be in a Zugzwang means, any move loses or more generally, worsens your ...
- 12k
35
votes
Accepted
Is there a position with the stupidest possible move?
Every single legal move from White checkmates—except the extremely stupid Bd7. There are 12 (discovered) checkmates with the rook on g2 alone. After the stupid move, Black is forced to give checkmate ...
- 6,287
31
votes
Accepted
Zugzwang where the side to move must be mated in exactly 2 moves
As Laska suggested, I was able to find it
in my 2001 files of correspondence with Richard Stanley:
[Title "Whoever moves must get mated in 2 moves (NDE 2001)"]
[FEN "BKQQ4/pPPP4/rbkp4/...
- 8,314
24
votes
Accepted
Are there any symmetric zugzwang positions?
You can easily construct many such positions. For instance:
4k3/8/3P1P/8/8/3p1p2/8/4K3 w - - 0 1
First to move loses - either by moving a king and allowing the opponent to promote or by losing one (...
- 3,816
19
votes
Is there a position with the stupidest possible move?
On 4 January 2007, in item 334 of his Open Chess Diary, Tim Krabbé considered the question of what is the worst chess move. His specification was "White has n moves, (n-1) of which would mate ...
- 6,640
18
votes
Accepted
Can a zugzwang be a bad move?
So a player puts another player in zugzwang, and the other player makes a move. However, after that move, the first player doesn't have good moves either and it's a reverse zugzwang, or a self-...
- 100k
18
votes
Is there a position with the stupidest possible move?
Here's an idea, which I'm sure of can be optimized:
[FEN "Q2Q1B2/4R3/N1Q5/3Q4/2Q2Q2/k4NQ1/p1Q5/K1b1Q3 w - - 0 1"]
1. Qb2 forces Bxb2#; there are more than forty mate-in-ones you can choose ...
- 25k
15
votes
What is the difference between a waiting move and zugzwang?
Zugzwang is when one side would like to "pass" but cannot. With a waiting move, you essentially do "pass". A waiting move could lead to zugzwang if one side has the ability to play ...
- 20.3k
13
votes
Midgame zugzwang?
There is the famous Immortal Zugzwang Game, Saemisch vs. Nimzowitsch, where White ended up in a near-zugzwang situation in the middlegame. In the final position, White, even being a Knight ahead, ...
- 25k
10
votes
Accepted
Helpful Zugzwang?
Like Brian Towers wrote, a zugzwang by definition can't be helpful to the recipient, but if we go past the terminology and look at your second question: "white forces black to make a move that gives ...
- 10.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Is this selfmate solvable or fixable?
First the verdict on the posted problem. It has certainly no solution in up to 12 moves (checked by Popeye v4.79). And the author of the Gustav software which specializes in selfmates says that there ...
- 13.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Is the analysis of Podgaets–Dvoretsky, USSR 1974 on Wikipedia wrong, or is Stockfish missing something?
I note that the source for the Wikipedia articles is a book written in 1978. Consulting Stockfish was not an option back then.
But to defend the "?": The fork after Qxh4 is trivial, and the ...
- 20.3k
9
votes
Full board with full point mutual zugzwang
Here's a position with all pieces where either side to play loses.
Seeing why it's a loss takes some analysis. With Black moving first, White's best plan is to open up the Bishop on f1 pinning the ...
- 91
9
votes
Accepted
Trying to remember a zugzwang puzzle/study position
The original position has the White King on a4, no White pawn. It's the end of a composed study by Gorgiev that I find as #753 in Sutherland and Lommer's 1234 Modern End-Game Studies (1938, Dover ...
- 8,314
9
votes
Is there a position with the stupidest possible move?
Position with just knights, where one white move mates in one and another move forces black to mate in one. Not many stupid moves, but also not many pieces (and piece types).
[Title ""]
[Fen ...
- 1,517
8
votes
Demystifying Seirawan-Kasparov 1983 king and pawn endgame
This is a stunning endgame. It is impressive how Kasparov perfectly used reserve tempi to reach the winning position in the diagram where triangulation is all that remains after Seirawan's 40. e4?? ...
- 5,206
8
votes
Can a zugzwang be a bad move?
You may be thinking of what is known as "reciprocal zugzwang" which are positions where either side would stand worse for having the move. They are very common in endgames, and feature ...
- 555
8
votes
What is the difference between a waiting move and zugzwang?
A waiting move is a move to wait and see what your opponent will do.
If you are in zugzwang then all moves worsen your position.
- 5,206
7
votes
Accepted
The highest amount of moves by the losing side in a zugzwang
The following are full-point zugzwangs, so both sides are losing if either moved!
[Title "Noam Elkies. EG 128, Apr 1998, p.53, 10967 (v)"]
[StartFlipped "0"]
[fen "8/8/k7/8/K7/RNbn4/B7/1R6 w - - 0 1"]...
- 6,640
7
votes
What is zugzwang in chess?
Here are some zugzwang positions which have been shown in answers to earlier threads:
4k3/8/3P1P/8/8/3p1p2/8/4K3 w - - 0 1
First to move loses (posted by GloriaVictis at this question on symmetrical ...
- 6,640
7
votes
Are there any symmetric zugzwang positions?
In all the chess books I've read, "trébuchet" is actually one particular case of a full-point double-zugzwang: the most minimalist one you can get, with only one pawn for each player:
8/8/8/...
- 16.7k
7
votes
Accepted
Where can I find a list of all zugzwang positions with ≤ 5 pieces?
John Beasley has a file containing information about his list of zugzwang positions with up to 6 units. That list is in a 15MB zip file zug3456.zip. (I mean that the zip is itself 15MB; the result of ...
- 6,640
6
votes
Accepted
Are there any Chess960 positions where Black has the advantage?
It happens that someone tried to evaluate all 960 positions with an engine. Several positions got a score of 0.00, but none of them offered any advantage for black.
Of course, those conclusions are ...
- 16.7k
6
votes
Can a rook and King checkmate a bare King without zugzwang?
Of course not. This is Basic Endgames 101. The main principle lies in forcing the lone king back by getting the opposition. If the lone king can pass then the stronger side can never get the ...
- 100k
5
votes
Helpful Zugzwang?
No.
If you look up the meaning of "zugzwang" you will see something like
Zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move") is a situation found in
chess and other games wherein one player is put at a ...
- 100k
5
votes
Is this selfmate solvable or fixable?
Is there a solution?
I don't think so. If the White queen goes to a square where it can interpose, then Black can just play BxB.
If, for example, White tries Qe8-d7 or Qe8-e6, hoping Black will move ...
- 20.3k
5
votes
What is zugzwang in chess?
Zugzwang is a situation where every single one of a player's moves loses, but if he didn't have to move then he'd be fine.
Consider this position:
White King on d5, White pawn on e4, Black King on ...
- 19.9k
4
votes
Midgame zugzwang?
I think you partially answered the question yourself. I can think of 3 scenarios.
In very closed positions like this game of Nakamaura against Rybka neither side may be able to improve the position, ...
- 20.9k
4
votes
Full board with full point mutual zugzwang
The second player mates by their 4th move at the latest, with completely unique play.
[Title "mate in 4 playing second"]
[FEN "nnb5/bqrp3p/krpP3P/1pP3p1/1P3pP1/p3pPRK/P3PRQB/5BNN b - - ...
- 13.6k
4
votes
The highest amount of moves by the losing side in a zugzwang
If you allow promoted pieces in the diagram: The following is a half-point zugzwang.
[Title "half-point zugzwang: WTM draws. BTM loses in 14"]
[StartFlipped "0"]
[fen "3q4/8/4q3/2Q5/k7/8/8/2K4Q b - - ...
- 6,640
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