I cant remember ever seeing one that I just couldn't solve. It reminds me of what magnus said about cheating when asked what he would need to cheat. Just a single signal one time in the match would be enough. It would be to indicate a complicated winning move is available. Then you simply find the move. In other words, chess puzzles are cheating :P
Really crazy how Stockfish does not focus on "wayward" moves (like the move that it does not detect) but rather "direct" moves that are straight to the point but creates a draw in this instance! This is for Stockfish to be resourceful on memory by eliminating "wayward" moves that have less chance to generate a win and giving more depth to the moves that seem more "winning". Good to see you back after disappearing from my recommendations for 3+ years! Time flies so fast!
Yeah there is still some flaws with Stockfish there Maybe it would need to stop calculating drawing lines further and further when it's obviously a draw to focus on analysing previously discarded moves Like "ok this is a draw, now do I have a better option?" Especially when it have infinite time to think
Contrary to what the video claimed, Stockfish actually finds the long forced-mate instantly. Chess Vibes keeps using the bad default Chesscom setting that limits Stockfish's depth to 22 - an artificial handicap that weakens the engine considerably.
@@Rocky64 Does a depth of 22 count both white and black moves toward the depth? If that's the case, I feel like it shouldn't find forced mate in anything above M11, but it does, doesn't it? It's more likely that moving the bishop is a "weird" move that Stockfish discards early on.
No, Stockfish (and Komodo) run alpha-beta searches, which evaluate the position for every possible (winning) move. It has nothing to do with intuition. If there is a mate in 12 and you let it search up to 24 ply Stockfish WILL find it - it's mathematically guaranteed. The depth was just artificially handicapped to 22 ply in this puzzle. You could say the same about a Stockfish limited to 1 ply and entirely relying on its NNUE heuristic.
@@tuxedobob2Yes, 22 is the depth of the game tree, which gets one level deeper for each player move. So 22 deep detects all mates in 11 and below. In these positions Stockfish can easily get to 35 or so depth if you don't just cut it off.
In 1995, John Nunn shortened a study by Matous to produce this position, as an engine-stumper. It's interesting that it continues to stump engines today, almost 30 years later.
There's another interesting line where white has to be very careful -- if, when the queen and knight are keeping the white king from moving black can play Nd5+, and if white moves anywhere except Ke6, Nc3 blocks the bishop *and* delivers a check on white's king. Black can then perpetually check until a 3-fold draw is reached.
@damyankuzmic5605 1. It does make more sense, I can tell English isnt your first language so Im not trying to insult you. But laughing out loud is coherent and means something while laughing on loud doesnt make any sense. 2. It doesnt matter if it would make more sense(it doesnt) because even if it does, the acronym is still laugh out loud. You can look it up, you dont change acronyms even if you think another word to replace it makes more sense.
@damyankuzmic5605 There is almost no time an outsiders perspectives will be right in terms of changing the language. It doesnt matter what you or I think, LOL is an acronym that means laugh out loud. It doesnt mean laugh on loud, it will never change from laugh out loud even if you think it doesnt make sense. It will be like me saying The Leaning Tower of Pisa looks more like a pillar so I will call it The Leaning Pillar of Pisa, I am just wrong because that isnt what it is called even if I think it fits more. Probably also shouldnt be thinking you know more about the English language just because you think one sounds better than the other, instead you should understand why this is right even if it sounds wrong. Otherwise implementing your own rules would make you illiterate to everyone else.
I wish wish wish wish wish that Nelson would run through the full puzzle once quickly at the end of the video, just so we can see the wonderful solution in full motion. Love the channel!!
At 9:44 - consider if black moves queen to A3. Covers both the bishop and the promotion at f8... edit: Ok, if so, you move king, check, but queen takes bishop. You can *then* promote the pawn for mate...
2:58 What I struggle with in this position is that the black queen does not need to move away from its square in response to Qxc7. There are pawns to move towards promotion. So in this case white's queen cannot return to a8-d8 (or the diagonal guarded by black's queen) or it will simply be taken by black's queen and the white pawn will never have a chance of being promoted. When black moves their pawns, would the white queen just follow and capture them until white's queen ends up on the right hand side of the board to deliver checkmate from there?
Damn I saw the same thing forgot they don't have to take. Can you imagine playing Magnus and when you sac your queen, Magnus just concedes cuz he figured the rest out!?
Try analysing positions with Stockfish 16 instead of Stockfish 16 lite. The lite version is often a bit off. Stockfish 16 will find this mate before reaching depth 30. It's always frustrating to me to hear "Stockfish can't find it" and see "Stockfish 16 lite depth 22" in the corner. Amazing puzzle btw
I tried with Stockfish 16 up to depth >50, it does not work. Note that if you show Stockfish the solution, and then undo and analyze the same position as before, it will indeed find the right move! This is because it caches previous results.
@@thomasr2472 Yes that's why I got it to find it at depth 30 Still, if I have to check by myself to make sure that the true Stockfish doesn't find it it's a bit annoying. If you want to say that Stockfish doesn't find it, fine, but show us the true Stockfish and without the depth cap otherwise what you show is useless cause unrelated to what you say
@@anonym5160 doesn't change my point. Sometimes Stockfish 16 lite will miss what Stockfish 16 would find. Therefore, everytime you Say "Stockfish doesn't see it" with an image of Stockfish 16 lite not finding it, what you show is unrelated with what you're saying. He should show us the Real Stockfish 16 no depth cap analysis, that would really illustrate his comments.
This is a phenomenal puzzle, and I would never have figured it out within the time constraints of an actual game. I'm not even sure I could have firgured it out given unlimited time. Thanks for showing this to us, especially the part about delivering the checkmate by moving the King.
I like how Stockfish suddenly realizes: "Oh yeah!... there is a checkmate there" 😅So sad, poor Stockfish cant talk to us, he would have so much to say.
Well, the stockfish depth is only 22. That means it can only find M11 at max. The puzzle is M12. Change depth setting and you'll see stockfish true power.
At 10:00 you are going through many of black's variations, but there is one important variation that you don't show. Black could play Qf8 intending both to block promotion and also to block the white bishop with Qg7 if the king moves. This also loses, but in a slightly different way than other moves. White doesn't capture the pinned queen on g7, but simply delivers mates by promoting on f8.
At 7:07 why not black queen to F2 check? The check again prevents pawn advance, and the queen can take the bishop if the king moves to expose the pin. Thanks for sharing a great puzzle.
Bishop B2 is the only winning move because black can push the pawn and you can position the bishop between a1 and b2 without being attacked. If bishop goes to a1 you will get attacked by the pawn and black can deflect the bishop
10:57 the position looks cool after Qf8, the only winning move is Kf5+, because the Qg7 is not check and then White must promote to a queen or even coller: a rook. Thanks for the video it was really mindblowing.
I believe white Kg5+ is still winning, unless I'm missing something. After Black plays Qg7+, White plays Kf5 and Black can no longer stop f8=Q#, even if queen takes bishop, since the queen is pinned on the diagonal and can't deal with the pawn. If Black plays Ne6, covering the f8 square, then the king simply captures the knight.
@@terencemah8521Yes, you're right, Kg5 also works, and you just have to go with the King to a square that the night cannot check you on, so Kh5 or even Kh4 are good as well. Thanks for the correction.
I thought of something, have no idea if this idea would work or not, @10:00 in the video, if it's blacks turn, why doesn't queen to f8 work? King would have to go to 5th rank, then maybe g7 for queen? I have no idea if that would work, I am no pro at chess by any means.
This is not "from reddit" please credit the original composer when showcasing studies, this one is by Mario Matous from 1975. Also it is missing a move, being (with the white queen on a6 and the black king on f8) Qc8 Kg8, reaching the position showcased here
Yes. In 1995, John Nunn shortened Matous's study to create a puzzle for a Batsford Chess Competition. Nunn specifically selected this position (and two others) to be difficult for computers.
Why doesn't black move Q to f8? When the K moves for the check he has to move away from the pawn. The Q steps in and sacs but the king can retake and move to f8
After white moves bishop to b2, why doesn't black fork the bishop with a check at c3 then even if white promotes the pawn, they can take the new queen and then promote black pawn at row a.
I plugged this puzzle into Stockfish 16, It took it 92 plies and a few hours to solve. Stockfish had to look past a lot of forced moves find the solution. I was using a AMD 3.3Ghz 32 GB CPU on stockfish 16 with Arena UI.
Why does Stockfish not see that? I tried depth 42 and still thinks this is an equal position. This may be key to make Stockfish better! It disregards some crucial moves, instead of trying them
2:14 If Stockfish can see a mate in 11 from the position after White's move, then why can't it see a mate in 12 from the original position? 7:56 and now I think I see why Ba1 at first loses; it's because of a parity condition (due to Black pushing the a-pawn). Holy **** this is a good one. 8:56 Well, Black doesn't HAVE to promote to a queen ... but it doesn't make a difference. 10:10 Hats off should be even more so to the composer (who has been identified in another comment).
This is the only puzzle I have saved on my hard disc for years, since no comps could find the solution for me. Still the most impressive and hard puzzle I have seen. What a genius puzzle!!
Nelson, yes mind tweeting but what about from the last position if Qf8 King moves Bishop delivering check Q g7 interpose, Bishop takes Queen check, King Takes Bishop King controls f8 so any promotion will be captured??? Look into it please! Thanks in advance. Ah after looking at it further, I realized that after Qg7 the Queen is pinned and f8 = Q or R mate!!! Now I see it… Wow in deed!
I’m just a lowly 900, but why at 10:30 would Queen g8 not work as a move? Edit: nvm I ran it myself lol. If anyone else is curious, white can just promote the pawn after the queen blocks which is checkmate since the queen is now pinned.
This is a very interesting puzzle. One way it could have gone is 1. Bc7 Qxc8 2. gxf7+ Kh8 3. Be5 Qc5 4. Bb2 Nc7 (This freezes the white king from going anywhere but black is zugzwang.) 5. Ba1 a4 6. Bb2 a3 7. Ba1 a2 8. Bb2 a1= (Any piece will do.) 9. Bxa1 Qc3+ 10. Bxc3 Nd5+ 11. Kf5+ Nf6 12 f8=Q# Another alternative
Well, in the end, when white captures the pawn in a1, black still can avoid a humiliating checkmate by the white moving his king, by 1) sacrificing the queen in e5, bishop takes, Ne8 check, fxe8=Q checkmate 2) directly go with Ne8 check, fxe8=Q check, Qf8, Qxf8 checkmate. And the second case is also a nice trick for black, because if white doesn't capture the knight directly with the pawn, but still want to checkmate by moving the king to e6, then Ng7 with check, BxNg7, KxBg7 and black now has a winning position since white cannot promote to f8.
A queen move to a3 or g1 or a knight move to e8 can procrast the checkmate but not stop it. But knight to d5 with check will stop white from winning because after the white king moves with discovered check, knight to c3 blocks the bishop. Bishop can not take it because the queen defends it and the promotion square is also defended by the queen.
After the final zugzwang, when the Q or the N have to move, there's one last mind-blowing variation, which is Qf8, looking to block the bishop's check, let's say White plays Kf5+, then Qg7 blocking the bishop's check... but at the same time the Q's pinning herself so f8Q boom! beautiful mate.
I've played chess since 1966. It's common courtesy to refer to the composer of a study when you present it. You don't just write "local newspaper", " a bloke in the pub", "reddit" or something like that. This study was originally presented by Mário Matouš in Szachy 1975. You are showing a shortened version, where the first moves by white and black have already been played.
Amazing puzzzle! In the starting position, if the pawn is in a7 instead of a5, it is instead a win for BLACK with the same incredible variations. Regardless of whether the bishop goes to b2 or a1, black can corresponding move the pawn from a7 to a5 or a6 (correspondingly) to eventually put black in zugzwang!! The option of moving 2 squares or 1 from a7 gives that wiggleroom!! A truly outstanding puzzle, well explained by Nelson!! btw, if someone has already posted this, apologies (didn't read through all the 100s of comments)!
A human can guess the first idea and the first move. But the full picture is much, much more beautiful. BTW, 1. Bxa5 and 1. Bb6 are the moves worth some analysis.
So with the bishop in A1 with black "unable" to move, what if the night moves to check the king? then the king moves, knight blocks the check. OR, black moves queen to G1, king moves, queen takes bishop? There's ways out
What am i missing? Queen to f8 Black moves king, quueen g7, white takes with bishop, black takes with king white does whatever, black taks pawn...im missing something.
I don’t see why at 5:14 “There’s one move” why can’t black move the queen to f8. Then when the white king moves and puts the black king in check, the queen can block and sacrifice but the king can take the bishop and the last white pawn.
Firstly, after ...Qf8, white can go Ke6+ and reveal check while still defending the pawn, so after ...Qg7, Bxg7+ Kxg7, Ke7, black can't prevent the white pawn from promoting. But even nicer: when the queen blocks on g7, white doesn't have to take it - they can play f8=Q#, mating because the queen is pinned. Still a cool alternative line to explore, for sure!
I don't see this option. If it was before knight preventing king to e6. After that bishop will be at a1. Before the knight movement king to e6 is checkmate.
Wait! What happens in that final move if the Queen moves in front of the white pawn? King moves, Queen can block the bishop. Black would win. This is a move you did not explore.
I DONT KNOW WHY BUT I LOVE THE HIYORI MOMENT BECAUSE IF A JUGEMENT HAPPENS TO THE CELESTIAL DRAGON, SHE WOULD BE A GREAT COUNTER ARGUMENT TO SOMEONE LIKE MAYBE VIVI WHO WILL FORGIVE THEM. DONT FORGET THAT ODA WRITE IN LONG TERM SO MAYBE THAT WOULD PLAY A ROLE LATER, I'M PRETTY SURE
I've seen thousands of chess puzzles but this one may be the most amazing of all. Nelson's perfect commentary enhances the beauty of the composition.
I cant remember ever seeing one that I just couldn't solve. It reminds me of what magnus said about cheating when asked what he would need to cheat. Just a single signal one time in the match would be enough. It would be to indicate a complicated winning move is available. Then you simply find the move. In other words, chess puzzles are cheating :P
Really crazy how Stockfish does not focus on "wayward" moves (like the move that it does not detect) but rather "direct" moves that are straight to the point but creates a draw in this instance! This is for Stockfish to be resourceful on memory by eliminating "wayward" moves that have less chance to generate a win and giving more depth to the moves that seem more "winning".
Good to see you back after disappearing from my recommendations for 3+ years! Time flies so fast!
Yeah there is still some flaws with Stockfish there
Maybe it would need to stop calculating drawing lines further and further when it's obviously a draw to focus on analysing previously discarded moves
Like "ok this is a draw, now do I have a better option?"
Especially when it have infinite time to think
Contrary to what the video claimed, Stockfish actually finds the long forced-mate instantly. Chess Vibes keeps using the bad default Chesscom setting that limits Stockfish's depth to 22 - an artificial handicap that weakens the engine considerably.
@@Rocky64 Does a depth of 22 count both white and black moves toward the depth? If that's the case, I feel like it shouldn't find forced mate in anything above M11, but it does, doesn't it? It's more likely that moving the bishop is a "weird" move that Stockfish discards early on.
No, Stockfish (and Komodo) run alpha-beta searches, which evaluate the position for every possible (winning) move. It has nothing to do with intuition. If there is a mate in 12 and you let it search up to 24 ply Stockfish WILL find it - it's mathematically guaranteed.
The depth was just artificially handicapped to 22 ply in this puzzle. You could say the same about a Stockfish limited to 1 ply and entirely relying on its NNUE heuristic.
@@tuxedobob2Yes, 22 is the depth of the game tree, which gets one level deeper for each player move. So 22 deep detects all mates in 11 and below. In these positions Stockfish can easily get to 35 or so depth if you don't just cut it off.
In 1995, John Nunn shortened a study by Matous to produce this position, as an engine-stumper. It's interesting that it continues to stump engines today, almost 30 years later.
The engine solves the study in seconds (mate in 12).
@@janbilek367 I tested this position with Lc0 on my PC and it took 1 minute, but my hardware isn't the fastest.
This is perhaps the most insane puzzle I've ever seen.
Until you see the next "most insane" one you've ever seen.....lol
@@Grayback1973do you also call your girlfriend "the best person in your life until you meet a better one"?
@@Emily-xl8qw awful comparison
@@unrenownedc skill issue
@@Emily-xl8qw that's your life
There's another interesting line where white has to be very careful -- if, when the queen and knight are keeping the white king from moving black can play Nd5+, and if white moves anywhere except Ke6, Nc3 blocks the bishop *and* delivers a check on white's king. Black can then perpetually check until a 3-fold draw is reached.
2:30 -- Cue Eric Rosen: gxf7+, a pin and a fork, a pork!! 🤣🤣
Also from Gauri chess
@damyankuzmic5605That's not how you spell "lol". Do you live inside a cave or something?
@damyankuzmic5605 Lol means Laugh out loud, as in you are laughing audibly
@damyankuzmic5605 1. It does make more sense, I can tell English isnt your first language so Im not trying to insult you. But laughing out loud is coherent and means something while laughing on loud doesnt make any sense.
2. It doesnt matter if it would make more sense(it doesnt) because even if it does, the acronym is still laugh out loud. You can look it up, you dont change acronyms even if you think another word to replace it makes more sense.
@damyankuzmic5605 There is almost no time an outsiders perspectives will be right in terms of changing the language. It doesnt matter what you or I think, LOL is an acronym that means laugh out loud. It doesnt mean laugh on loud, it will never change from laugh out loud even if you think it doesnt make sense. It will be like me saying The Leaning Tower of Pisa looks more like a pillar so I will call it The Leaning Pillar of Pisa, I am just wrong because that isnt what it is called even if I think it fits more.
Probably also shouldnt be thinking you know more about the English language just because you think one sounds better than the other, instead you should understand why this is right even if it sounds wrong. Otherwise implementing your own rules would make you illiterate to everyone else.
Me, a 900 rated player, after hearing stockfish see no win, still pauses to have a look.
I wish wish wish wish wish that Nelson would run through the full puzzle once quickly at the end of the video, just so we can see the wonderful solution in full motion. Love the channel!!
You could watch it again at x2 speed in 'settings'
Mario Mattous was the composer... he made a lot of problems like this one
A real problem maker
At 9:44 - consider if black moves queen to A3. Covers both the bishop and the promotion at f8... edit: Ok, if so, you move king, check, but queen takes bishop. You can *then* promote the pawn for mate...
2:58 What I struggle with in this position is that the black queen does not need to move away from its square in response to Qxc7. There are pawns to move towards promotion. So in this case white's queen cannot return to a8-d8 (or the diagonal guarded by black's queen) or it will simply be taken by black's queen and the white pawn will never have a chance of being promoted.
When black moves their pawns, would the white queen just follow and capture them until white's queen ends up on the right hand side of the board to deliver checkmate from there?
This is THE best chess puzzle I've ever seen 🤩🤩
Thank you very Nelson for bringing this up!
I suggest you should have continued analyzing. In the last position after Bxa1 if Qf8, Kf5+! Qg7, f8=R/Q+ and mate.
Thanks, saw that and was thinking bishop takes queen is just losing.
Didn’t realize you just promote.
Damn I saw the same thing forgot they don't have to take. Can you imagine playing Magnus and when you sac your queen, Magnus just concedes cuz he figured the rest out!?
He also missed Qf8 in previous positions, so.
I wanted to react , then I saw you came up with the same as me. Beautiful, isn't it! 😂
@@wesleydeng71 That was not critical, indeed, on some moves from zhugzwang, you just promote with a mate, rather than move your king
Try analysing positions with Stockfish 16 instead of Stockfish 16 lite. The lite version is often a bit off. Stockfish 16 will find this mate before reaching depth 30. It's always frustrating to me to hear "Stockfish can't find it" and see "Stockfish 16 lite depth 22" in the corner.
Amazing puzzle btw
I tried with Stockfish 16 up to depth >50, it does not work. Note that if you show Stockfish the solution, and then undo and analyze the same position as before, it will indeed find the right move! This is because it caches previous results.
@@thomasr2472 Yes that's why I got it to find it at depth 30
Still, if I have to check by myself to make sure that the true Stockfish doesn't find it it's a bit annoying.
If you want to say that Stockfish doesn't find it, fine, but show us the true Stockfish and without the depth cap otherwise what you show is useless cause unrelated to what you say
I let the puzzle analyse with Stockfish 15.1 and he can‘t find the winning move doesn‘t matter how long it think.
@@anonym5160 doesn't change my point. Sometimes Stockfish 16 lite will miss what Stockfish 16 would find. Therefore, everytime you Say "Stockfish doesn't see it" with an image of Stockfish 16 lite not finding it, what you show is unrelated with what you're saying.
He should show us the Real Stockfish 16 no depth cap analysis, that would really illustrate his comments.
@@thomasr2472 Not sure how you tested it. I just tried it with Stockfish 16, depth 32 and it found the solution... not immediately, but failry quick.
At 10:10 i was wondering is black play Qf8; kf5+, Qg7; Bg7+,Kxg7; and it’s a draw. What i’m missing?
Ok, i understood what i was missing, after Qg7; f8=Q#
To answer the question at 4:52, I once checkmated by castling.
Elaborate
@@Fronzel41 I castled and where the rook was positioned lined up with the enemy king and it was checkmate.
I believe I have as well...
This is a phenomenal puzzle, and I would never have figured it out within the time constraints of an actual game. I'm not even sure I could have firgured it out given unlimited time. Thanks for showing this to us, especially the part about delivering the checkmate by moving the King.
One of the coolest puzzles I have ever seen! Thank you for sharing and breaking this down!
@10:00 ...What if black queen moves to f8 to prevent check from white bishop?
KE6 and KE7 and the pawn...
Hats off to whoever developed this puzzle! Can you imagine how much effort had to go into figuring something like this out?
Queen to F8 at the end is an interesting position I wish you could’ve explored!
Qf8 fails to Kf5+ Qg7 f8=Q mate!
@ saw that after the fact, but still a complex position that I wish was covered!
5:11 move queen to f8. There is options after this to checkmate white.
Qf8 Ke6+ Qg7 f8=Q# the queen will be pinned by the bishop so not defending the promotion square
I like how Stockfish suddenly realizes: "Oh yeah!... there is a checkmate there" 😅So sad, poor Stockfish cant talk to us, he would have so much to say.
Well, the stockfish depth is only 22. That means it can only find M11 at max. The puzzle is M12. Change depth setting and you'll see stockfish true power.
2:09 stockfish suddenly gets smart 🤓🤓🤓😂😂😂
At 10:00 you are going through many of black's variations, but there is one important variation that you don't show. Black could play Qf8 intending both to block promotion and also to block the white bishop with Qg7 if the king moves. This also loses, but in a slightly different way than other moves. White doesn't capture the pinned queen on g7, but simply delivers mates by promoting on f8.
Yes. A check and a pin. A chin.
At 7:07 why not black queen to F2 check? The check again prevents pawn advance, and the queen can take the bishop if the king moves to expose the pin. Thanks for sharing a great puzzle.
Qf2+ Ke6+ Qxb2 f8=Q++
@@wickedpawn5437ke6 ? Sacrificing the king😂😂
5:56 what about q f2
Same, king moves and bishop delivers discovered check. After Qxb2 promote the pawn
9:55 What about Qf8? White king moves, but black queen can block the check with Qg7.
Then white promotes the pawn.
Black Q is then pinned, so it's checkmate.
Then f8=Q#
Not only did I checkmate with a king once, I checkmated by moving out of an opponent’s check.
Chess was so much better before engines. Now every 1200 player acts like they know every solution
The internet was so much better before eternal September. Now every poster is a bot or troll.
@@1happystone166 puzzles like this have been created for hundreds of years.
Everything was better back in the day, ask your grandparents. Or wait, are we now the grandparents?
7:48 again queen to f8 leads checkmate options for black.
No. Kf5#
I love how stockfish offers the draw and then afterwards is all like, “of course this is winning for white. Wasn’t it obvious?”
It never did it always said mate in 2
Bishop B2 is the only winning move because black can push the pawn and you can position the bishop between a1 and b2 without being attacked. If bishop goes to a1 you will get attacked by the pawn and black can deflect the bishop
what about qa3 at 10:54??? Please someone answer this fast...I am getting very annoyed
After the bishop capture you can just promote to a queen with mate
@@Adammarshall2341 oh yeah...thanks for the answer
10:57 the position looks cool after Qf8, the only winning move is Kf5+, because the Qg7 is not check and then White must promote to a queen or even coller: a rook. Thanks for the video it was really mindblowing.
I believe white Kg5+ is still winning, unless I'm missing something. After Black plays Qg7+, White plays Kf5 and Black can no longer stop f8=Q#, even if queen takes bishop, since the queen is pinned on the diagonal and can't deal with the pawn. If Black plays Ne6, covering the f8 square, then the king simply captures the knight.
@@terencemah8521Yes, you're right, Kg5 also works, and you just have to go with the King to a square that the night cannot check you on, so Kh5 or even Kh4 are good as well. Thanks for the correction.
I thought of something, have no idea if this idea would work or not, @10:00 in the video, if it's blacks turn, why doesn't queen to f8 work? King would have to go to 5th rank, then maybe g7 for queen? I have no idea if that would work, I am no pro at chess by any means.
After black queen blocks in g7, f8 promotes to queen or rook and delivers checkmate
This is not "from reddit" please credit the original composer when showcasing studies, this one is by Mario Matous from 1975. Also it is missing a move, being (with the white queen on a6 and the black king on f8) Qc8 Kg8, reaching the position showcased here
Yes. In 1995, John Nunn shortened Matous's study to create a puzzle for a Batsford Chess Competition. Nunn specifically selected this position (and two others) to be difficult for computers.
That moment when the king was in a mating net with barely any adjacent pieces, preventing him from delivering checkmate, was magnificent
4:53
I have. I've even delivered checkmate by castling.
Why doesn't black move Q to f8? When the K moves for the check he has to move away from the pawn. The Q steps in and sacs but the king can retake and move to f8
If queen blocks bishop doesn't have to take it. White promotes the pawn then its checkmate because the queen is pinned.
Stockfish also finds the move if you expand the search until Bc7 comes onto the analysis screen as one of the candidates.
After white moves bishop to b2, why doesn't black fork the bishop with a check at c3 then even if white promotes the pawn, they can take the new queen and then promote black pawn at row a.
I saw this puzzle in gauri chess before....
i knew i'd seen before it but couldn't remember where, Gauri is an absolute legend
@damyankuzmic5605 This is an invented puzzle
Brilliant 👏 👏
I saw this it last week on puzzles engine can’t solve
Same here
Best lines for black after Bxa1 are either ...Qc3+ or ...Nd5+ (delays mate the most)
The power of Reddit and communities.
I plugged this puzzle into Stockfish 16, It took it 92 plies and a few hours to solve. Stockfish had to look past a lot of forced moves find the solution. I was using a AMD 3.3Ghz 32 GB CPU on stockfish 16 with Arena UI.
I saw this 'checkmate battery' at once, but it's really OUT OF THIS WORLD
Incredible!
Why does Stockfish not see that? I tried depth 42 and still thinks this is an equal position. This may be key to make Stockfish better! It disregards some crucial moves, instead of trying them
2:14 If Stockfish can see a mate in 11 from the position after White's move, then why can't it see a mate in 12 from the original position?
7:56 and now I think I see why Ba1 at first loses; it's because of a parity condition (due to Black pushing the a-pawn).
Holy **** this is a good one.
8:56 Well, Black doesn't HAVE to promote to a queen ... but it doesn't make a difference.
10:10 Hats off should be even more so to the composer (who has been identified in another comment).
I would have lost, thought that Ba1 was the winning move. Totally misded the knight move trapping the king.
Wonderful puzzle.
This is the only puzzle I have saved on my hard disc for years, since no comps could find the solution for me. Still the most impressive and hard puzzle I have seen. What a genius puzzle!!
Stockfish does not calculate all moves. He chooses a few and checks them. So an algorithm for choosing candidate moves has some problems :D
First time you would see Kxy#
Yeah. I once pulled odd a 0-0-0!! winning a bishop and thereby the game, but a king move for checkmate is something else.
Nelson, this is one of the most popular puzzles ever. I know the solution before watching the video since I have and many others have seen it
Nelson, yes mind tweeting but what about from the last position if Qf8 King moves Bishop delivering check Q g7 interpose, Bishop takes Queen check, King Takes Bishop King controls f8 so any promotion will be captured??? Look into it please! Thanks in advance. Ah after looking at it further, I realized that after Qg7 the Queen is pinned and f8 = Q or R mate!!! Now I see it… Wow in deed!
I’m just a lowly 900, but why at 10:30 would Queen g8 not work as a move?
Edit: nvm I ran it myself lol. If anyone else is curious, white can just promote the pawn after the queen blocks which is checkmate since the queen is now pinned.
At 5:22 king e6 and white is going to promote after e7. What am I missing?
it also confuses stockfish in the beginning which is incredible
Nope it's sees mate in 2 it was fake
From the last position both knight to g8 and queen to f8 prolong the defence...
This is a very interesting puzzle. One way it could have gone is 1. Bc7 Qxc8 2. gxf7+ Kh8 3. Be5 Qc5 4. Bb2 Nc7 (This freezes the white king from going anywhere but black is zugzwang.) 5. Ba1 a4 6. Bb2 a3 7. Ba1 a2 8. Bb2 a1= (Any piece will do.) 9. Bxa1 Qc3+ 10. Bxc3 Nd5+ 11. Kf5+ Nf6 12 f8=Q# Another alternative
Funny, after the bishop move reveal the erroneous "but my king is in de way" thought vanished.
10:48 what if black pushed the pawn?
You’d just play Kg6 and it would be mate
Well, in the end, when white captures the pawn in a1, black still can avoid a humiliating checkmate by the white moving his king, by
1) sacrificing the queen in e5, bishop takes, Ne8 check, fxe8=Q checkmate
2) directly go with Ne8 check, fxe8=Q check, Qf8, Qxf8 checkmate.
And the second case is also a nice trick for black, because if white doesn't capture the knight directly with the pawn, but still want to checkmate by moving the king to e6, then Ng7 with check, BxNg7, KxBg7 and black now has a winning position since white cannot promote to f8.
This doesn't stop checkmate, but it does stop a humilating one.
A queen move to a3 or g1 or a knight move to e8 can procrast the checkmate but not stop it. But knight to d5 with check will stop white from winning because after the white king moves with discovered check, knight to c3 blocks the bishop. Bishop can not take it because the queen defends it and the promotion square is also defended by the queen.
@@robheusd so the queen is overworked. take the knight anyway and after the queen recaptures she is no longer defending the promotion square
After the final zugzwang, when the Q or the N have to move, there's one last mind-blowing variation, which is Qf8, looking to block the bishop's check, let's say White plays Kf5+, then Qg7 blocking the bishop's check... but at the same time the Q's pinning herself so f8Q boom! beautiful mate.
Black queen to F8 at the 10:30 mark kills this.
king to f5,queen blocks at g7 and white gets a queen delivers a checkmate, as black queen will be pinned from bishop
@@studytable2060 Yes that's right...
I've played chess since 1966. It's common courtesy to refer to the composer of a study when you present it. You don't just write "local newspaper", " a bloke in the pub", "reddit" or something like that. This study was originally presented by Mário Matouš in Szachy 1975. You are showing a shortened version, where the first moves by white and black have already been played.
Amazing puzzzle! In the starting position, if the pawn is in a7 instead of a5, it is instead a win for BLACK with the same incredible variations. Regardless of whether the bishop goes to b2 or a1, black can corresponding move the pawn from a7 to a5 or a6 (correspondingly) to eventually put black in zugzwang!! The option of moving 2 squares or 1 from a7 gives that wiggleroom!! A truly outstanding puzzle, well explained by Nelson!! btw, if someone has already posted this, apologies (didn't read through all the 100s of comments)!
I feel like I've just watched a 2 hours action movie.
Very unique puzzle.
I've only checkmated by moving my king once in my entire chess career.
A human can guess the first idea and the first move. But the full picture is much, much more beautiful. BTW, 1. Bxa5 and 1. Bb6 are the moves worth some analysis.
5:53 queen f2 is a fork. Am I missing something?
If qf2 ke7 check then white promoting the pawn is unstoppable
Qf8 still looks promising for me since pawn and horsie blocks both squares where white's king could move to side.
He left it out since it’s not king mate :)
Qf8, king moves, queen has to block, pawn promotes is mate because queen is pinned.
Can you do a video of the hector gambit?
Challenge idea: Beat Martin but your last move has to be moving your king. :)
what happens if black moves QB3+ (check + bishop threat)?
This is one of if not the best and craziest chess puzzle I've ever seen.
So with the bishop in A1 with black "unable" to move, what if the night moves to check the king? then the king moves, knight blocks the check. OR, black moves queen to G1, king moves, queen takes bishop? There's ways out
Este puzzle lo pusieron en un foro de amigos y la verdad es que, ahora que veo el estudio al detalle, es una pasada.
Sin palabras me quedo 🤐😳
this puzzle was covered in a daniel naroditsky video a while while back, title of video is "how to study chess" or something
Somewhere, Lelouch vi Britannia smiled and thought: "That's my school! After all, if the king doesn't move, then his subjects won't follow".
When you first move bishop to b2, what’s stopping queen to f2 check, then take the bishop?
Brilliant puzzle, wow. It just seems that the amount of chess puzzle possibilities is infinite!
When you moved the bishop on A2 couldn't it be countered with queen F2, checks the white plus takes the bishop!
This puzzle is absolutely beautiful.
What am i missing? Queen to f8
Black moves king, quueen g7, white takes with bishop, black takes with king white does whatever, black taks pawn...im missing something.
I don’t see why at 5:14 “There’s one move” why can’t black move the queen to f8. Then when the white king moves and puts the black king in check, the queen can block and sacrifice but the king can take the bishop and the last white pawn.
Firstly, after ...Qf8, white can go Ke6+ and reveal check while still defending the pawn, so after ...Qg7, Bxg7+ Kxg7, Ke7, black can't prevent the white pawn from promoting.
But even nicer: when the queen blocks on g7, white doesn't have to take it - they can play f8=Q#, mating because the queen is pinned. Still a cool alternative line to explore, for sure!
6:57 what happend if Q goes to f2 or b6?
M1 promotion after QxB
What about black queen to f8 as last move? So when the bishop does checl the queen can interrupt the check, no?
There's no way am solving this puzzle in my entire life. Thanks for sharing Nelson
What happens if queen back king.moves and queen blocks
What happened to the bot rating climb?
Certainly the greatest puzzle I’ve ever seen
I actually saw the Bc7 idea (I tried Be7 first but quickly saw that it didn't work) but I didn't find the whole solution.
This is a well known study, not a puzzle, by Matous. Very difficult and fascinating study.
Imagine getting this in puzzle rush
What happens if black checks with f2 and take the bishop?
I don't see this option. If it was before knight preventing king to e6. After that bishop will be at a1.
Before the knight movement king to e6 is checkmate.
pawn on g6 takes pawn on h7 check.
king takes pawn
Qneen to H3 check
King to g8
Queen to g4 check
King to h8 check
Queen to G7 checkmate
Please check out Scramble, the best random chess variant ever invented.
Wait! What happens in that final move if the Queen moves in front of the white pawn? King moves, Queen can block the bishop. Black would win.
This is a move you did not explore.
No. Queen would block the bishop check, but then white pushes the pawn and promote to queen. Checkmate, the black queen is pinned by the bishop
I DONT KNOW WHY BUT I LOVE THE HIYORI MOMENT BECAUSE IF A JUGEMENT HAPPENS TO THE CELESTIAL DRAGON, SHE WOULD BE A GREAT COUNTER ARGUMENT TO SOMEONE LIKE MAYBE VIVI WHO WILL FORGIVE THEM. DONT FORGET THAT ODA WRITE IN LONG TERM SO MAYBE THAT WOULD PLAY A ROLE LATER, I'M PRETTY SURE
I saw this recently on some compilation of positions where Stockfish broke, I think the Reddit guy got it from that.