Grotesque!

ByDrDave

Otto Blathy composed chess problems. But the ones he liked were a bit funny! The positions could never happen in a game, but they usually had a nice idea in them.
These gnarly positions are called grotesques.

Mr.B showed me this one many years ago: White to play and win! Black is moving down the board — well, that’s if they could move…

Puzzle 1

Hints and answers

And I just found this one: White to play and win, again

Puzzle 2

So, they’re quite long, for a chess puzzle, but there is really just one idea to find — if you can!

Otto also holds a world record, for the longest solution to a chess problem. How long? Mate in 290! Surely that’s a draw under the 50-move rule? Well, actually no! But the solution is so long it broke my database… White could win if Black did something silly, like 1…Bb7, letting White make a new Queen. But Black has lots of other things to do! Well, we can wait…

Puzzle 3

Hints and answers

Puzzle 1

Hints for Puzzle 1 (click-drag to select)

  1. If Black moves either Knight, White can checkmate with the Knight
  2. If White moves their Knight, Black can move a Knight without losing, and then the g-pawn, and then get the Queen out, and then White loses.
  3. At the moment, Black can only shuffle the Queen up and down.
  4. If White moves the King to a light square from the corner, Black can check with a Knight, and then hop back…
  5. So White can move Kg7, (Black goes Qh3), Kg6 (no …Ne4+ because of mate, so Black goes Qh4)… now what?
  6. It would be nice if White could go Kg6 when the Q is already on h4, then we would have …Qh3, Kxg5, Qh4+; Kxh4, then Black must move a Knight and lose.
  7. So can you lose a move with the King? Well, yes, but watch out that you don’t get checked!

Puzzle 2

Hints for Puzzle 2 (click-drag to select)

  1. Only the White Queen can move, and you can’t mate with Q alone
  2. You can chase the King around the board
  3. Maybe you can chase the King away from the action, and dash back to do… something!
  4. The something is… Qxh3! Then you have a passed pawn.

Puzzle 3

Hints for Puzzle 3

  1. Some puzzles are meant to be admired and not solved…

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    Puzzle corner

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    Mr.B was always very good at producing a puzzle for us each week. Today’s puzzle comes from Mr.Lees — many thanks!

    You’re Black, and you can checkmate White in two moves (you move, White moves, then you play checkmate).

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