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Here's a miniature selfmate puzzle that I composed today. I just got an idea and I managed to successfully create it. I got the basic idea down to just 9 pieces, none of which are promoted.

It's White to move and force Black to checkmate them in 10 moves. Naturally, Black tries to prolong their resistance for as long as possible.

enter image description here

Please use your own brain power to solve it! Have fun solving!

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  • $\begingroup$ Black pawns are moving down I assume? $\endgroup$
    – shoopi
    Commented Jun 26, 2019 at 19:24

1 Answer 1

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Solution:

There appear to be many lines, that all follow the same strategy of forcing the Black King down the a-file and the b pawn down the b-file to finally give checkmate to the white king. One possible line where black has only one legal move is:

1. Rd8+ Ka7 2. Qg6 b6 3. Rh7+ Ka6 4. Qf5 b5 5. Qe6+ Ka5 6. Rd4 b4 7. Rh5+ Ka4 8. Rc4 Ka3 9. Nc5 b3 10. Rh8 b2#.

enter image description here

If black tries instead to move the pawn two squares forward white can still force self mate in 10:

1. Rd8+ Ka7 2. Qg6 b5 3. Qf7+ Ka6/b6 4. Rh6+ Ka5 5. Qb3 b4 6. Rc8 (waiting) Kb5 7. Qd5+ Ka4 8. Rh3 b3 9. Rc4+ Ka3 10. Rh8 b2#.

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  • $\begingroup$ I indeed forgot to account for that :) however white can still force a self mate in 10 - I added the line at the bottom. $\endgroup$
    – shoopi
    Commented Jun 26, 2019 at 20:27
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    $\begingroup$ I've just looked at it. Not sure if I could solve it however at a glance it looks impossible to me. It's important to note that in Selfmates White forces Black to deliver mate against his will (black tries his hardest not to mate white). I'm very curious to see the solution. $\endgroup$
    – shoopi
    Commented Jun 27, 2019 at 17:28

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