This puzzle was just sent to me by my long time friend GM Pal Benko. It is a part of the Holiday series. I will post one per day for the next 5 days 🙂
How do you reach this position in 4.5 moves? (5 white moves , 4 Black moves) Enjoy!
r1bqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq – 0 1
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
! e4 Ne6 2 e5 NXe5 3 Nf3 NXf3 4 Ke2 Ne1 5 KXe1
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3+
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Kxe1
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3+
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Kxe1
Nice. The key is to realize the moves that the black knight can do, in such a way that white can offer the pawn and knight. Marco
1.e4 Nc6
2.e5 Nxe5
3.Nf3 Nxf3+
4.Ke2 Ne1
5.Kxe1
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3+
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Kxe1
e4 Nc6
e5 nxe5
Nf3 Nxf3
ke2 n-e1
ke1
Magic we are there
1. e4 Cc6
2. e5 Ce5
3. Cf3 Cf3+
4. Re2 Ce1
5. Re1
1) e4 nc6
2) e5 ne5
3) nf3 nf3+
4) Ke2 ne1+
5) Ke1
Simplicado Susan!
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Kxe1
To be honest, I got the right idea only after I entered regrogade mode. I asked what was White’s last move and than It hit me that Black could have checked the White King on f3 and that White does not have to take the Knight and can move the King to e2.. the rest flowed by itself. Great puzzle.
A Weiler and his family wishing you the best wishes for the holidays
Black could only have moved his knight. This knight could not have been eliminated by White’s e-pawn or knight, so Black’s knight had to reach the first line to be eliminated there. This only seems to be possible with the white king.
1.e4 2.Nc6 2. e5 Nxe5 3. Nf3 Nxf3+ 4. Ke2 Ne1 5. Kxe1
and we have reached the position in question.
Great puzzle. I can get to this position after exactly 5 moves but not 4.5. The key is clearly the only pieces that can move for black are the knights. We know too that the Black QN must be taken and the White KP and KN must be taken by a Black N. So here are some indirect clues not the 4.5 move solution:
1. e4, Nc6; 2. e5, N*e5; 3. Nf3 N*f3+; 4. Q*f3, Nf6 (this is the extra move that one has to postulate; Nh3 works just as well) 5. Qd1 Ng8. Note that if the BN moves to f3 it is check so one cannot get an extra White tempo.
Now to get to a move earlier we cannot have the BQN moving at all but that may imply taking the BKN on the 4th move and the WKN therefore being taken at that time or earlier. Yet I cannot find this.
Psyche/ Anonymous
Funny one
1.e4 Pc6 2.e5 Pxe5 3.Pf3 Pxf3+ 4.Ke2 Pe1 5.Kxe1
I hope I am right 🙂
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Kxe1
1. e4 nc6
2. e5 nxp
3. nf3 nxn+
4. ke2 ne8
5.kxn
rnbqkbnr/pp3ppp/2p1p3/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK1NR
the above position, to be acheived in 4 moves each side took the team of Tal, Petrosian, Polugaevesky 20 mins to solve !
I find it quite fun! The first hurdle is to know that the last White move is either from the king, queen, bishop on f1, or rook on h1, going back to the ‘respective starting squares’ (d1, e1, f1, or h1).
The next hurdle is to know that the black knight needs to reach one of these respective starting squares in 4 moves, and the only one possible is e1!
Thus it is now known that the white king plays Kxe1 from e2. Hence, the following hurdle is for White to give up the e pawn and the knight but also play Ke2 and Kxe1 in five moves. The answer is pretty obvious now 🙂
Good one, actually took me a while and I almost concluded that something must be wrong…
After some analysis, a few things occur to you:
1) Only the black knight on b8 can have moved since we cannot waste two moves on getting the other one back when we also have to take two white pieces
2) The black knight must have been taken on a black square since that’s all it can reach in 4 moves. Since there is only one black square that’s occupied by a white piece that could have made the last move, the solution is suddenly obvious:
1.e4 Nc6 2.e5 Nxe5 3.Nf3 Nxf3+ 4.Ke2 Ne1 5.Kxe1
Voila.
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3+
4. Qxf3 Rb8
5. Qd1 Ra8
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Kxe1
I thought for long time, then i realized that the black night must have been captured on a black square.
This comes by the following:
a) black has an even number of moves, hence its knight must have been captured on a dark square;
b) 4 half moves are too few to allow black a couple of forth-and-back moves;
c) the only white piece with a dark starting square, which can have captured the knight returning to its initial position is the king.
So, now… i think black has the advantage because White can’t rook, and is one pawn down.
Okay .. it was easy.
1. e4 Nc6 2. e5 Nxe5 3. Nf3 Nxf3+ 4. Ke2 Ne1 5. Kxe1
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Ne5
3. Nf3 Nf3
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Ke1
Nice puzzle by Mr. Benko. Indeed, a brain challenge. I came up with some deductions (which may be wrong, of course), but haven’t been able to found a solution. I think:
1) B makes 4 half-moves with his queen’s knight (the other possibility is 2 half-moves with each knight, but that seems impossible)
2) B queen’s knight captures W e-pawn and king’s knight, one of them on its 2nd or 3rd half-move, and the other one on his last, 4th half-move
3) On his 5th half-move, W captures B knight, thus reaching final position
I couldn’t find any move sequence that would allow B knight to capture W pawn and knight and end up on W’s 1st row, enabling capture by W piece, so my 3 deductions above are possibly flawed. The best I could come up with is
1.e4 Nc6
2.e5 Nxe5
3.Nf3 Nxf3+
4.Qxf3 Nh6
5.Qd1 Ng8
and since it requires 5 moves, instead of 4.5, it’s not correct.
Looking forward to the solution of this one 🙂
1.e4 nc6
2.e5 nxp
3.nf3 nxn+
4.ke2 ne1
5.kxn
…
5.Kxd1!
1.e4 Nc6 2.e5 Nxe5 3.Nf3 Nxf3 4.Ke2 Ne1 5.Kxe1
1 e4 Nc6
2 e5 Ne5
3 Nf3 NxN
4 ke2 Ne1
5 ke1
1. e4 Nxc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3+
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Kxe1
1.e4 Nc6
2.e5 Nxe5
3.Nf3 Nxf3
4.Ke2 Ne1
5.Kxe1
Nice to flex the little grey cells in a different way. I’m looking forward to the other puzzles! Thanks Susan 🙂
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Ne5 3.Nf3 Nf3+ 4.Ke2 Ne1 5.Ke1
1. Nc3 Nc6 2. Ne4 Nd4 3. Ng5 Nxe2 4. N5h3 Nxg1 5. Nxg1 *
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nxe5 3.Nf3 Nxf3+ 4.Ke2 Ne1 5.Kxe1 Dogan Erbahar… Turkey
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3
4. Ke2!!Ne1
5. Kxe1
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3+
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Kxe1
A possible solution
1. e4 , Nc6
2. e5 , Nxe5
3. Nf3 , Nxf3+
4. Ke2 , Ne1
5. Kxe1
Greetings from Spain
1. e4 Nc6
2. e5 Nxe5
3. Nf3 Nxf3+
4. Ke2 Ne1
5. Kxe1
This was clever, thanks Susan!
1.e4 Nc6 2. e5 Nxe5 3. Nf3 Nxf3+ 4. Ke2 Ne1 5. Kxe1
Greetings from Italy 🙂
Stefano
I have seen this before somewhere,
1: e4 Nc6
2: e5 Nxe5
3:Nf3 Nxf3+
4:Ke2 Ne1
5:Kxe1
Quorthon (NL)
1.e4 Nc6
2.e5 Nxe5
3.Nf3 Nxf3+
4.Ke2 Ne1
5.Kxe1
Fun one.