Piercing Bullets

Question

Under 30-secs. bullet time control the above position results after n moves. What is the fewest number of moves possible?

Answer 1

It can be done in:

29 moves, or 58 plies.

Here is the move list. It takes quite some precision of Black moves to do it!

1. d4 h6 2. Bg5 hxg5 3. a4 a5 4. Na3 Rh6 5. b4 e5 6. h4 d5 7. g4 Bf5 8. gxf5 Re6 9. fxe6 Ke7 10. Qd2 Kf6 11. hxg5+ Kf5 12. e4+ Kg4 13. Nh3 f5 14. Nf4 Nf6 15. gxf6 Bc5 16. bxc5 Qd6 17. cxd6 c5 18. Rb1 Nc6 19. Nc4 b5 20. Rh3 Rb8 21. Re3 g5 22. Bd3 bxc4 23. Rb4 cxd3 24. c4 Rb5 25. axb5 axb4 26. bxc6 gxf4 27. Qc2 fxe3 28. f4 Kf3 29. Qc3 bxc3

Replay it here.

Here is proof of optimality.

Black has more pieces captured, necessitating more moves. Therefore, Black "leads" the game and the proof. The h pawn must move twice to a capture square, along with 13 more pawn moves. The king takes 5 moves to get to f3. The queen, bishops, and knights all need one move at a minimum to reach capture squares. The rooks cannot move to a capture square in one move, resulting in two moves from each. In summary, 2+13+5+(1*5)+2+2=29 Black moves.