Questions tagged [chess]
A puzzle related to chess, a two-player board game with white and black pieces of varying ranks.
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Undecidable Checkmate
While playing chess, I had a momentary dizzy spell which erased most of my short-term memory. I knew only the current position, and that I was playing White, and that all play so far had been legal, ...
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The Worst Possible Chess Move
Bad, even very bad chess moves are nothing out of the ordinary. Every single player will have had their fair share of stupid blunders like hanging a queen in an otherwise completely winning position. ...
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What is the history behind this chess position?
In the game depicted below, Black managed to come out on top by delivering checkmate to the white king trapped in the corner. On the way to this outcome, seven pieces were captured at several points ...
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A Tribute to Daniel Naroditsky
Grandmaster Daniel "Danya" Naroditsky was well known for his excellent chess commentary, online streams, and educational content. One chess concept Danya enjoyed introducing to his viewers ...
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White to move and mate in one against lots of Black Queens
Add one White King and one White Queen and as many Black Queens as possible to the board so that White can mate Black in a single move. Also give the checkmating move.
Clarifications:
After the ...
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Knight meets wall… so what?
1. Knight Distance
Knight distance is a figure that represents the minimal move that will bring a knight to a specific square in chessboard.
For example, knight distance when knight is on c4 goes:
2. ...
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Snow White and the Seven Rooks on Dark Squares
With the white queen on a light-coloured square of your choosing, can you place 7 rooks on the dark squares of the chessboard so that no piece attacks another?
In the above Lichess illustration (with ...
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Knight’s One-Way Pawn Hunt (6x6)
Variant of this lovely puzzle
The playable version of the game
You are given an empty chessboard as in the link above as 6x6.
Place one knight anywhere you like.
Then place as many pawns as possible ...
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The Royal Relay on a Chessfield
Playable Version
In the ancient Kingdom of Gridoria, a mysterious curse has frozen the entire realm: every citizen, every castle, every mountain.
The royal court's only hope lies in a sacred Relay ...
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The Drunken Bishopawn’s Staggering Tour
Here’s an original version of the puzzle: this question.
Once upon a time, there was a Bishopawn: a hybrid chess piece that moves like a bishop (freely on diagonals) and, like a pawn, could step one ...
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Shortest tour from a Bishopawn
A Bishopawn is here defined as a Bishop that can also advance one square, just like a Pawn. That means the Bishopawn can change its square color and visit all the squares!
What is the minimum number ...
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Mate in two (4 pawns clumped together)
White to move and mate in two:
FEN:
B7/3pp1K1/3Pp3/4k3/1P1N4/7P/3P4/B7 w - - 0 1
Attribution:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-2021-07#
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Nightriders ("long" knights) on a large chessboard
You can attack this question in a clever, in a general or in a bonus way.
Source is a chess problem of mine (yep, they publish math chess problems in the SCHWALBE, they have a whole category and mine ...
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Chess Heroics (Circle geometry)
The White Rook is boasting again.
"Fear me, puny Blacks! I came a long way from my home to punish you all!
First I killed a laughable Pawn. Then I made a right turn and a longer
move, and a ...
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Minimum Crossed Knight Chess Tour
The Knight's Tour is a famous sequence of moves in a Chessboard.
We now search for a Knight Tour such that the number of intersections drawn by the tour is minimal.
Here is a valid Knight tour given ...
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Peaceful Weighted Sudoku Chess Grid
To illustrate a valid solution, here is a first non-optimized at all solution of value 79
Let us fill a Peaceful Weighted Sudoku Grid with the maximum value with Chess pieces with the following rules:...
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Help me win F1 movie tickets!
My roommate Max changed the locks in our dorm, and I need to find out the password. Max also made a bet that if I get the 2 digit code on my first try I would get tickets to the new F1 movie!!
I saw a ...
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Chess - Amazons - Magnus Carlen vs Gukesh 2025 Norway
Parts of this puzzle are taken from this nice puzzle of @Will.Octagon.Gibson.
An Amazon is a fairy chess piece that can move like a queen or a knight.
In this famous game at Norway in 2025, ...
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What is the maximum number of Amazons that can be placed on a 5x5 chessboard so that no piece attacks another?
An Amazon is a fairy chess piece that can move like a queen or a knight.
What is the maximum number of Amazons that can be placed on a 5x5 chessboard so that no piece attacks another?
Attribution:
...
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Can 3 Nightriders checkmate a lone King (with help of friendly King) on an infinite chess board?
Nightrider, or NN, is a fairy chess piece similar to the knight, but it can continue leaping in the same direction in one move while the touched fields are empty (like the bishop). It is stronger than ...
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What were the last 15 single moves?
Here is a new retrograde analysis puzzle, once more a "simple" king and pawn endgame! The length of the task may sound a bit daunting at first, but I think this one should not be too hard to ...
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What happened to the missing pieces?
Once more, here is a new retrograde chess puzzle! This one might have turned out a bit tricky, so if you like a challenge, please have a go! :)
In the game leading up to the position below, both ...
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Will we be able to solve the Proca retractor?
A. -16 & #1 Proca retractor composer: Joaquim Crusats, Die Schwalbe 330 12/2024 (version by S.Nikhto) INCORRECT
White and black take turns retracting moves (white starts) and after white retracts ...
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Sam Loyd's broken chessboard
Puzzle from Sam Loyd: Rearrange the eight pieces in order to form a perfect 8x8 chessboard.
Comment: This is not a "trial and error" puzzle. There is a hidden strategy* behind it and your ...
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Is it possible to put a helpmate in three moves here? - 2
Let's try to solve another similar puzzle. The task is the same: "White starts and, together with black, puts black's checkmate in three moves."
h#2,5(AP) Stepan Nichto (version), chessok....
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Prove that it's always possible to remove one rook so that the remaining rooks still satisfy the same property of no empty ranks or files.
Redundant rook puzzle:
Fifteen rooks (and no other pieces) are placed on a standard 8x8 chessboard such that there is at least one rook in each rank and file (that is, horizontal and vertical rows).
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Is it possible to put a cooperative checkmate here in three moves?
The puzzle is presented in two versions: full (1) and abbreviated (2).
Is it possible to put a cooperative checkmate here in three moves? (white makes the first move)
h#2,5 (AP) Stepan Nichto. ...
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Fastest checkmate by castling
Given that the two chess players cooperate, what is the fastest checkmate with the castle (either White's or Black's) as a final move?
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How many chess pieces does it take to "cover" all spaces on a chessboard if you must have at least one of each type?
Given an 8x8 chessboard, your goal is to "cover" each space on the board with the fewest possible number of pieces. The extra restriction is that you must have at least one of each type of ...
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Can you swap the positions of the 8 Chess bishops?
Goal:
Swap the bishops so that at the end the white bishops completely fill the top row and the black bishops completely fill the bottom row.
Details:
Move bishops one at a time according to standard ...
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Can you colour these chess pieces?
Here is a new little retrograde chess puzzle! In the position below, only kings and pawns remain on the board. Unfortunately, the lighting in the picture was so bad that the black and white pieces ...
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All black pieces are gone II
This recent puzzle inspired me to make a little follow-up along the same lines:
What is the minimum number of moves to reach this position?
Have fun solving this! :^)
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What was the first capture?
Here is a new little retrograde chess puzzle. This one is intended to be (genuinely) approachable - so if you've never tried to solve one of these yourself before, give it a shot!
In this game, not a ...
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Can you find the missing chess pieces?
I originally wanted to post a new retrograde chess puzzle today. But unfortunately, before taking the picture of the final position, I accidentally knocked some of the pieces off the board :( All I ...
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Unneighbourly circuit. Is there a closed rook tour on a 4x4 chessboard where the rook never moves to an adjacent square?
Place a Chess rook on an arbitrary square of a 4x4 chessboard. The rook is allowed to move horizontally or vertically but not to an adjacent square (that is, it must move at least two squares).
Is ...
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What was the checkmating move?
Once again, here is a new retrograde chess puzzle! Recently, I have been trying to build something interesting with all 32 pieces still on the board. In this attempt at that, White somehow comes out ...
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Chess Retrograde Analysis Chain of Captures
White gave black odds of both knights (white started the game without both knights)
Neither king has moved nor been in check
There is an unknown piece on h6, where was it two moves ago?
This is a game ...
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Retrograde Analysis Chess by Raymond Smullyan
Black's first move was d5.
The knight on f5 moved exactly 3 times
The black king never moved
The black queen also never moved
Prove that this position is impossible to reach in real game
Puzzle by ...
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Rooks on a 3-dimensional chessboard
𝑛 is the smallest number of rooks which can dominate an 𝑛 × 𝑛 chessboard.
By domination, we mean that all squares of the 𝑛 × 𝑛 chessboard are under attack by the rooks. Since we will be extending ...
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Turning circle of the (general) chess knight
Consider a zebra (2,3-knight). Verify that on a 4x6 board, it is not stuck in the center (either of c2,d2,c3,d3) but yet the chess board can be divided into 4 areas, and the zebra can't reach one area ...
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How many Ducks are needed to trap a Queen?
Duck chess is a popular variant on chess.com, but this question is not about it. Just borrow the cute ducks and its movement rule:
A duck piece can move to any vacant square on its move. It must move
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Nonattacking pegasi on the 12×12 board
There were two questions asked in quick succession about nonattacking nightriders and then camelriders on an 8×8 board. In both cases a "striping" argument provides a decent upper bound.
It ...
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How many non-attacking camelriders on a chess board?
Just one more fairy chess piece please...
The justifications are:
A camel is like a knight except that instead of moving in a 2x1 rectangle, it moves in a 3x1 rectangle. Note that, like a bishop, a ...
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Determine the chess knight’s tour of a 6x6 chessboard given some hints
A chess knight traversed a 6x6 chessboard and returned to the starting square after visiting all the other squares exactly once. Some of the squares still bear a trace of the knight's visit - the ...
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How many non-attacking grasshoppers on a chess board?
A recent question about non-attacking nightriders on a chess board made me wonder about the other famous fairy chess piece from that era, the grasshopper.
This moves along queen lines, but only if it ...
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How many Nightriders can be safely placed on a chess board?
Nightrider, or NN, is a fairy chess piece similar to the knight, but it can continue leaping in the same direction in one move while the touched fields are empty (like e.g. the bishop):
How many such ...
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Chess: White to move, mate in 4 moves [duplicate]
The problem depicted here was contributed by Dunsany to The Week-End
Problems Book, compiled by Hubert Phillips.
Its solution calls more for logical
thought than skill at chess, although one does have ...
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White en passanted, now what?
Here is a new retrograde chess puzzle based round a new idea.
In the position below, White’s 9th move was an en passant capture. Can either player still castle?
(10+9) FEN: r2qk1n1/ppppp2P/P4P2/8/8/...
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What happened to the Knights?
Once again, here is a new retrograde chess puzzle! This one took some inspiration from Miguel Ambrona's lovely recent retro that builds around a curious theme I hadn't really thought about before. The ...
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