# Something Large From Something Small

I have created a miniature chess puzzle that takes advantage of a piece of chess semantics that has some debate to it.

This is the puzzle:

Construct a legal (meaning that two opposite colored Kings are required) chess position that has a combination of 7, no more and no less, pieces and pawns, that has at least 54 checkmates in two in total. It is up to you to decide the color and figure out the material distribution.

Note that there must be no possible mates in one in the initial position.

To my knowledge, the solution that I made is unique, not counting the ability to mirror it and color switching. But I am not entirely sure, so that is why I stipulate at the least.

Additionally, can you identify what part of chess semantics that this puzzle takes advantage of?

• Exactly 54 or at least 54? Does the position have to be reachable in an actual game? What's with the cut off sentence at the end? – Deusovi Jun 10 '19 at 1:22
• It must be 54 at the least. Yes, it has to reachable-I stipulated to have to be legal. And I fixed the sentence. – Rewan Demontay Jun 10 '19 at 1:25
• Does a mate-in-one count, or does it have to be a mate in exactly 2? – Deusovi Jun 10 '19 at 1:36
• There can be no mates in one possible. So yes, it has to be exactly mate in two. Duals are allowed be used to rack the count up. – Rewan Demontay Jun 10 '19 at 1:37
• What do you mean by "duals"? Do two mates count as different if their first moves are the same, but the second moves are different? – Deusovi Jun 10 '19 at 1:38

I must be missing something because I'm getting a lot more than 54 mates-in-two for the position below? I have 116 listed, although I'm doing this by hand so there may be some errors included. Is there some rule I haven't considered?

Qa8 Kh8
Qd7#
Rf7#
Rg5#
Qc8 Kh8
Qd7#
Rf7#
Rg5#
Qe8 Kh8
Qd7#
Rf7#
Rg5#
Qb7+ Kg8
Qd8#
Re8#
Qb7+ Kh8
Qd8#
Re8#
Rf8#
Qc7+ Kg8
Qa8#
Qd8#
Re8#
Qc7+ Kh8
Qa8#
Qd8#
Re8#
Rf8#
Qcd7+ Kg8
Qa8#
Re8#
Qcd7+ Kh8
Qa8#
Re8#
Rf8#
Qd8 Kh8
Qb7#
Qcc7#
Qcd7#
Re7#
Rf7#
Qdd7+ Kg8
Qa8#
Qc8#
Re8#
Qdd7+ Kh8
Qa8#
Qc8#
Re8#
Rf8#
Qh5 Kg8
Rg6#
Qeg4#
Qg2#
Qdg5+ Kh7
Rh6#
Rh5#
Qh1#
Qdg5+ Kh8
Rh6#
Rh5#
Qh1#
Qdh1 Kg8
Rg6#
Qg4#
Qeg2#
Re8 Kh7
Qdd7#
Qe7#
Rf7#
Rg5#
Re7+ Kg8
Qa8#
Qc8#
Qd8#
Re7+ Kh8
Qa8#
Qc8#
Qd8#
Rf8#
Rg6+ Kh7
Rh5#
Qh4#
Qeh1#
Qdh1#
Rg6+ Kh8
Rh5#
Qh4#
Qeh1#
Qdh1#
Rh6 Kg8
Qg6#
Qeg4#
Qdg4#
Qg1#
Rg5+ Kf7
Rf6#
Qf5#
Qf4#
Qef3#
Qdf3#
Rg5+ Kf8
Rf6#
Qf5#
Qf4#
Qef3#
Qdf3#
Rg5+ Kh7
Rh6#
Qh4#
Qeh1#
Qdh1#
Rg5+ Kh8
Rh6#
Qh4#
Qeh1#
Qdh1#
Qeg4+ Kh7
Rh6#
Rh5#
Qch1#
Qdh1#
Qeg4+ Kh8
Rh6#
Rh5#
Qch1#
Qdh1#
Qh4 Kg8
Rg6#
Qcg2#
Qg4#
Qg1#
Qeg2+ Kh7
Rh6#
Rh5#
Qh5#
Qdh1#
Qeg2+ Kh8
Rh6#
Rh5#
Qh5#
Qdh1#
Qeh1 Kg8
Rg6#
Rg6#
Qcg2#
Qg4#
Qdg1#

• Could probably squeeze in a few more by putting the Qe4 on f4 instead, but I'm not counting out all the variations since it looks like I'm still missing the point of the puzzle somehow... – jafe Jun 10 '19 at 8:41
• @RewanDemontay "Chameleon questions" (i.e. changing the rules to invalidate existing answers), even accidental ones, are bad etiquette: The most polite option here is probably to Accept jafe's answer, and create a new question with your "exactly 54 moves" criteria. Possibly see if there are other criteria you can add to prevent "closed as too broad", such as "at least n pieces for each colour" or "y pawns" – Chronocidal Jun 10 '19 at 12:55