Can't the knight capture the white king resulting in checkmate for black?
The Hardest chess problem in the world?
111–120 of 137 posts
Re: The Hardest chess problem in the world?
#112Can't the knight capture the white king resulting in checkmate for black?
No, it'd have to be in the position of the white pawn in the initial position to reach the king. It moves two pieces (not three) horizontally and 1 piece vertically, or vice versa.
Re: The Hardest chess problem in the world?
#113I'm not much of chess person, but I don't get it. Even if the black knight plays for white, it's still not checkmate. What prevents the black king from "eating" that black knight?
Black plays for black. The black knight blocks the only position that the black king can move to for safety, all other moves by the black king (or not moving the king at all) result in the king being captured. If it moves right it gets captured by the rook, move down or down-right, it gets captured by the white king. Don't move and it gets captured by the rook, and there's no way to play the black knight to block the rook, either.
Of course you could argue that if you're ignoring today's rules of the game that you may as well have the black king take the black knight, but that's illegal under the rules and probably has been right from the start.
Re: The Hardest chess problem in the world?
#114Re: The Hardest chess problem in the world?
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're just disappointed because you wanted to solve a chess problem. I liked the article because I read it as a story to be enjoyed rather than a problem to be solved.
Yeah I would be disappointed too if, for example, I'm asked to find out how to avoid a clear checkmate and I spend a lot of time thinking and fail, and then I'm told "you flip the board over and run away".
He said at the very beginning of the article that it is no longer a legal move. I don't know why you are surprised to find out that the move isn't legal now. But it has nothing to do with "flipping over the board". It's a perfectly reasonable seeming move.
Re: The Hardest chess problem in the world?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
the amount of times i get called bullshit for doing an en passant or uttering the word zugzwang...
Serious question: Does en passant happen often? I've never seen it happen in the wild (i.e. in games I play), but I just play casually with people.
I've definitely seen it, and I have never played a ton of chess.
Re: The Hardest chess problem in the world?
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the solution presented at the end of the article, whose turn to move is it? Who can't make any further moves coz they've been check-mated? That's what I don't get. If it's white, white can still move their king back towards their home row and there's more than one move left in the game. If it's black, black can move the black knight in between the two kings and we'd still have more than one move left.
Black is in check from the white rook. Moving the black night doesn't escape the check, so isn't a legal move.
Now I get it. The "beef" is that white replaced their white pawn with their opponents black knight, which of course the black king can't eat...
Re: The Hardest chess problem in the world?
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, but putting "strictly" there does not change the meaning of the sentence, it's just a superfluous word.
"strictly" changes the meaning of the sentence. it suggests that there are "strict" and "not so strict" interpretations of the chess rules, and that if you're not so strict, the move is OK. but promoting to the other color is not allowed, even under "not so strict" interpretations of the rules of chess. an example of things that may be permitted in "not so strict" chess: taking back your move, not moving a piece even…
Allowing promotion to any piece sounds perfectly in line with "not so strict" chess rules to me.
Re: The Hardest chess problem in the world?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
the amount of times i get called bullshit for doing an en passant or uttering the word zugzwang...
Serious question: Does en passant happen often? I've never seen it happen in the wild (i.e. in games I play), but I just play casually with people.
It happens a lot more to people who don't know the rule.
Re: The Hardest chess problem in the world?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
the amount of times i get called bullshit for doing an en passant or uttering the word zugzwang...
Serious question: Does en passant happen often? I've never seen it happen in the wild (i.e. in games I play), but I just play casually with people.
More common in blitz. Carlsen executes it in the 2013 world blitz championships I believe, and I've had it done to me and I've done it as well in 1m/2s games.