POSITION SET UP FUN – 1

Setting up positions (more commonly known in chess circles as "Retrograde Analysis")  is one of the favourite & most addictive chess pastimes. All you have to do is set up a given position by moving pieces legally. In most instances exact number of moves is given. But as opposed to making it easier, this usually makes it even harder.

Let’s have a look at a basic position set up problem to understand the concept of retrograde analysis.

REACH THIS POSITION AFTER FOUR MOVES

Your task is to reach the above position by playing 04 moves each for both White & Black from the starting position. Mind you, those moves must be legitimate.

It looks difficult at first but when you realize that Black’s knight on b8 is actually the one that started the game on g8, it becomes a lot easier.

The solution is

1.    Nf3           d5

2.    Nd4          Nf6

3.    Nc6          Nfd7

4.    Nxb8        Nxb8

Rather neat, isn’t it?

Let’s try a more difficult one then.

REACH THIS POSITION AFTER FOUR MOVES

Once again it must be noted that ' after 04 moves' means 04 moves EACH for both White & Black. I urge you to ponder couple of minutes upon a possible solution before moving on.

At first glance everything looks straightforward. I trust it did not take more than 30 seconds for you to come up with (what you thought was) the 'correct' solution. 1.e4 e6  2.Bc4 c6 3.Bxe6 dxe6.

But I urge you to look at the instructions again. You are required to reach the given position after 04 moves(!), not 03.

But no matter, I hear you think. If a position can be reached after 03 moves then it ought be quite easy to waste a move & reach the same position after 04 moves.

But is it really as easy as it sounds?

Well, if the position was supposed to be reached after white’s 4^th move, then you can play 1.e3 e6  2.Bc4 c6 3.Bxe6 dxe6 4.e4. But unfortunately, you need to reach the position after Black’ s 4^th move.

Check Position set up fun-2 for the correct solution. But do make sure you spend a bit of time on this problem before peeking.    

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