As you may know already, chess problem composers are a
clever lot. You can trust them not to miss an opportunity to exploit even the slightest
loop hole in the rules book. Over the years, ambiguities in the definition
of some chess terms offered them ample scope for manipulation.
Following is a very old puzzle that looks absolutely
impossible.
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| WHITE TO PLAY AND MATE IN ONE MOVE |
ONE MOVE ? Really ?
It is easy to determine that none of the possible moves
would deliver the desired checkmate. However there is a catch (as you may have guessed already)
At the time of the above puzzle (believed to be the 19th
century), a pawn promotion was defined as “If a pawn advances to its eighth rank, it is then
promoted to a queen, rook, bishop or knight”. This seems like a fairly
accurate description. However, notice the unfortunate omission of the colour of the promoted piece. It sure
sounds absurd but if you take the above definition at face value, a pawn can be
promoted to a piece of the other colour as well. With that in mind it shouldn’t
take more than few seconds to come up with the solution.
1. b8 = bN # !! (Black
Knight)
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| FINAL POSITION |
P.S - The
definition of a pawn promotion was later changed to “If a pawn advances
to its eighth rank, it is then promoted to a queen, rook, bishop or knight
of the same colour”.
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