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-warning : true story alert-

In my high school years, I used to be in the chess club. One day, my friend taught me the famous 4 move win and told me how it was "the best, the fastest, most awesome winning strategy ever".

Later that night, it made me think... was it really the best move? I then played around with my chess board until I found a 2 move win starting as black(This was before the whole internet search thing was trending). Although it was not very likely to succeed, when I showed it to my friend the next day, his reaction was priceless.

-true story end-

Can you find the 2 move win in chess starting as black?
Internet makes this puzzle trivial so please try to do it old school like me in the days. Also if you already knew about it, you might want to leave the fun to someone else :)

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  • $\begingroup$ you can have mate in 0 if blacks first move is to knock his king over :( $\endgroup$ – JMP Jan 17 '17 at 8:18
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    $\begingroup$ This is quite well-known nowadays, even there is a name for it: Fool's mate $\endgroup$ – justhalf Jan 17 '17 at 8:31
  • $\begingroup$ @justhalf "This is quite well-known nowadays"... well that makes me feel old haha... It is quite hard, even for me now, to remember a time when there was no internet. $\endgroup$ – stack reader Jan 17 '17 at 8:56
  • $\begingroup$ @stackreader: Don't worry, I remember my experience finding this out during my high school years also =p $\endgroup$ – justhalf Jan 18 '17 at 2:41
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OK, it's rather easy. But it's highly unlikely to ever happen in a competitive game:

1. g4 e5
2. f3 Qh4#
(1. f3 e5.
2.g4 Qh4#)
(1. f4 e5. 2.g4 Qh4#)

Here's a picture of the board, if anyone is interested:

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ "unlikely to ever happen in a competitive game". Do not underestimate my lack of chess skills. $\endgroup$ – Marius Jan 17 '17 at 8:41
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    $\begingroup$ I would never call you a fool . . . but hey. someone might. $\endgroup$ – Rubio♦ Jan 17 '17 at 17:00
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    $\begingroup$ In the early days of chess (600AD to 1450AD) the queen could only move diagonally, one square at a time. At that time an extremely slow opening aimed at establishing diagonal ramparts of pawns was reasonable. When the new "la dame enragée" rule was introduced, I wouldn't be surprised if a few duffers were caught napping in this way. $\endgroup$ – Hugh Meyers Jan 17 '17 at 19:23

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