White Checkmates Black in 4 Moves
Think hard and win!
(Written 12/09/93 by Erik Fechner, Puzzle appears with permission.)
Hint
Most people get hung up after the 3rd move by black 3 ... Kd7 exposes the White King to a discovered check from the black queen. Right?
Most folks jump right in with the obvious:
- White: Rd1+ Black: Ke6 forced
- White: Bc4+ Black: d5 forced
- White: exd6+ e.p. Black: Kd7+! forced but CHECK to white from black queen! And of course white can not win now as he must defend his king.
So, the problem really is: White's King being on e1. But what other move could white have made to put black in check on the first move (besides Bc4 which is suicide) but also solve his king on e1 problem? Try it again now with these hints in mind.
Chess Puzzle Answer
- White: 0-0-0+! Black: Ke6 forced
- White: Bc4+ Black: d5 forced
- White: exd6+ e.p. Black: Kd7 forced (but this time the white king is safe from the black queen over on c1, where he castled to on move 1.)
The last move is pretty sweet too. Why don't you try it from here for a minute before I give that up too?
Scroll down if you give up or think you have it.
4. b8=N++! Mate with an under-promotion to a Knight!
I really didn't write this puzzle to be tricky. I wrote it to teach my new chess students (& my in-laws) the 3 "lesser-known" rules of chess: Castling, en passant & under-promotion all in one puzzle. It took me about a month to write it. I hope you enjoyed it!