Questions tagged [chess]
A puzzle related to the game of chess. Questions about chess which aren't puzzles are off-topic but can be asked on Chess Stack Exchange.
3
votes
2answers
174 views
Enumerate the ways of putting six armies of queens on a humongous chessboard
This is a sort of a sub-problem of the open puzzle Peaceful Encampments, for high numbers of armies.
Consider a chessboard with an astronomically large number of vanishingly small squares, on which ...
8
votes
2answers
294 views
Reverse Puzzling - Curious Chess
George rubbed his hands together. "What have you got for me today?" he asked.
I showed him the pieces set up on the chess board and told him the stipulation.
"That's a very strange one." He said. "...
5
votes
3answers
958 views
Knights Problem
There are 2 white knights and 2 black knights positioned at a (3 X 3) chess board. Find the minimum number of moves required to ...
5
votes
3answers
130 views
Discrete Peaceful Encampments: Player 4 has entered the game!
Here's a variation of Discrete Peaceful Encampments: Player 3 has entered the game! (which itself is a variation of Peaceful Encampments).
You have 3 white queens, 3 black queens, 3 red queens, and ...
4
votes
3answers
172 views
Discrete Peaceful Encampments: Player 3 has entered the game!
Here's a variation of Discrete Peaceful Encampments: 9 queens on a chessboard (which itself is a variation of Peaceful Encampments).
You have 4 white queens, 4 black queens, and 4 red queens. Place ...
14
votes
4answers
999 views
Discrete Peaceful Encampments: 9 queens on a chessboard
Here's a discrete variation of yesterday's puzzle Peaceful Encampments.
You have 8 white queens and 8 black queens. Place all these pieces onto a normal 8x8 chessboard in such a way that no white ...
13
votes
0answers
528 views
Peaceful Encampments
This math puzzle is due to Donald Knuth (as far as I know; maybe he got it from someone else) circa 2014.
Consider a plain represented by the unit square. On this plain we want to “peacefully ...
11
votes
3answers
317 views
You may remove pieces of your opponent's!
You are in a regular chess tournament, your opponent is Deepest Blue AI who considers every kind of possibilities and does not make any mistakes.
But you are given an opportunity to remove any pieces ...
13
votes
1answer
1k views
4x4 chessboard, bishops and knights are removed, 4 moves to checkmate
Four-by-four chessboard
Bishops and knights are removed
Four moves to checkmate
Minor spoiler:
Source: Me, I think this website needs more haiku :)
31
votes
10answers
8k views
A Very Illegal Position
It's been a while since I've done a chess puzzle, so here's one!
This position is illegal in quite a lot of ways:
It's illegal in at least 10 ways. The first one to find all of the ways this ...
8
votes
1answer
307 views
A chess game with odd moves?
A friend and I like to play chess regularly. Like me, he is a lover of a good puzzle, which is what drew us to the game. The thrill of finding a checkmate in a board riddled with pieces cannot be ...
6
votes
2answers
434 views
The Chessboard Exhibition
Why not, another entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #41: Short and Sweet
I just bought the newest, coolest chessboard! I think I'm going to share it to my five chess pieces at the National ...
4
votes
1answer
106 views
The Faerie Army is coming!
Well, we're all in trouble, yet again. The fabled Faerie Army has come to take over our dimension.
This is the battlefield:
However, their soldiers don't work quite like ours...
Their pawns ...
3
votes
3answers
491 views
Conway's Game of Life… Chess Edition
Here's a new interesting game.
Here's the starting position:
and here's how it works.
Before I even start explaining this, adjacent includes diagonally adjacent. Thank you.
White goes ...
4
votes
1answer
126 views
The Chess 24 Game
The Eight Queens Puzzle is one of the most famous chess problems of all time. The premise is simple- place 8 queens on a chessboard so that none of them attack each other. A solution is shown here:
...
7
votes
1answer
129 views
Halloween chess: Vampires and Zombies and Bats, oh my!
Halloween chess begins in the usual starting position, except most of the pieces are replaced with "fairy chess" pieces... or maybe we should say "ghoulish chess" pieces... The new types are:
Zombie ...
6
votes
1answer
166 views
An Atomic Proof Game
One day, I heard two of my friends were playing an online game of chess. I went to spectate, and this was the position:
However, I looked at the move list, and realized White's sixth move had just ...
6
votes
2answers
237 views
The ability-swap-circle chess
This question was inspired by this question: A Battle of Dysfunctional Kings (Chess).
What would be the shortest possible mate, if:
Every piece moves in the same way.
The way the pieces move ...
13
votes
2answers
1k views
A Halloween Chess Puzzle
Halloween is finally here, so I thought I'd do a theme puzzle! I love chess, and I wanted to do a chess puzzle... so...
(It kind of looks like a jack-o-lantern, okay?)
Black to move and ...
11
votes
3answers
322 views
Loser Chess : another proof game
After this puzzle has been solved, it is time to offer our clever solvers another Loser Chess game to reconstruct...
Do you remember that I often pay a visit to my friends Fabi and Mag on evenings ? ...
12
votes
4answers
1k views
A Chess Lock Puzzle?
I was recently talking to one of my friends who played chess (much better than me, I'll admit). He said he had a different kind of chess problem, one that may be a little easier, or that may be a ...
13
votes
2answers
1k views
Knight Checker Puzzle
Inspired by this question
Here's a quick Knight Checker (a chess variant) puzzle. In case you haven't read the rules to it in the above link, I'll repost them here:
Each player begins with 1 ...
5
votes
2answers
352 views
One-sided chess: Can you stalemate yourself?
You sit down to play a game of chess. Your side has the white pieces, arranged in their regular starting positions. One problem: your opponent has left, and has taken all the black pieces!
Can you, ...
33
votes
3answers
5k views
Mate in one with NO PIECES?
The following pictures depict chess positions one move before white checkmated black:
The problem is, I seemed to have completely lost which pieces each letter/number represents. All I know is that ...
2
votes
1answer
156 views
A Fairy Warped Chess Maze
So, my previous puzzle A Warped Chess Maze is somehow my highest voted puzzle on Puzzling SE. So, I'm bringing it back, now with fairy pieces!
The fairy pieces will be explained in a bit, but the ...
9
votes
3answers
621 views
Reconstruct a game of Loser Chess
In loser chess, the rules are the same as in classical chess but for the following points:
The king behaves just as any normal piece and can be captured. There is no check, no checkmate, and the king ...
5
votes
1answer
143 views
Reconstructing A Chess Game #4
My five years old pupil Magnus is really on fire !
After three wins in the first, second and third games, he is playing White today in round 4 against one of the tournament's favorites (a child who ...
4
votes
1answer
134 views
Three free moves, three more moves, mate
This morning, at the coffee corner in our office, I met a colleague who mentioned he'd be joining a chess club. So I asked him: "And, how was your first evening at the chess club?"
"Well, it was a ...
17
votes
1answer
1k views
Megan mated by a king move
"Been playing some chess with my husband recently", my friend Megan began, as we sat with our drinks in Coffee Monarchy.
"How'd you get on?" I asked.
"Didn't get off to a good start, I'm afraid. In ...
9
votes
3answers
850 views
No moves at all, not even to put yourself in check
Here, white is stalemated. The king is not in check, but white has no legal moves. Not because any move white makes would put the king in check -- which is how stalemates normally happen -- but ...
89
votes
5answers
13k views
Mate in 0 moves
Not exactly a traditional chess puzzle, and I won't offer much of an explanation for fear of giving away the answer.
White must mate in 0 moves, meaning he must deliver a check mate without touching ...
7
votes
3answers
280 views
Fabi and Mag played chess again
Fabi and Mag love chess, and I love to watch them playing together. I am not such a strong player myself, but I am an excellent spectator! The three of us were having a nice evening around a chess ...
31
votes
2answers
608 views
lolcatz can haz ur infinit cheeseboard
This is a problem on an infinite chessboard with pieces called lolcatz. They can move like queens or knightriders, but have a strange disadvantage...
... you've never heard of knightriders? Well, ...
26
votes
3answers
3k views
How did four chessmen disappear?
I was visiting two friends yesterday and found them sitting at a chess table.
After a glance at the board, I thought I had interrupted them when they were installing the starting position and I said: ...
5
votes
2answers
182 views
The Minimized Dropmate
I don't know, but I think my opponent just may be cheating in this chess game.
So, the natural thing to do is cheat right back! My plan is to put black pieces on the board so the white king is ...
19
votes
2answers
2k views
A Warped Chess Maze
A chess maze is a kind of chess puzzle where:
Only one side moves (and that side usually only has one piece).
That side must capture a piece with every move.
The goal is to capture all of ...
9
votes
1answer
666 views
Murder in the Royal Court
An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #40: Retrograde Analysis!
I can't believe it! Last night we heard a bit of fighting... but we had no idea that... our King was in check, and my fellow Rook and ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views
A poorly-designed chess problem
Entry into Fortnightly Topic Challenge #40
Out of character comment: For effect, don't open up the next spoiler until you've finished the statement before. If answering, please explain each remark.
...
1
vote
2answers
149 views
The Fastest Queen Trap (Chess)
This question is fairly simple, but simple doesn't mean easy (although for some people it probably is)
Find the fastest possible way to trap a queen in chess from the starting position.
Definition ...
2
votes
1answer
161 views
8-move checkmate with king
This is a pretty unusual chess game. Checkmate with the king on move 8. Based on the three moves provided, can you reconstruct the game?
5.Nd2
7... a6
8.Kd1#
2
votes
1answer
101 views
Excited Raichu vs the Dream (Chess Puzzle)
(Source: An actual tournament game I played all the way back in 2016)
I had the weirdest dream last night…
It started out normal enough, which for me, is basically nothing… but then I woke up, ...
3
votes
1answer
134 views
3
votes
1answer
232 views
An Antichess Puzzle
There's a fairly popular alternate version of chess called Antichess, or Losing Chess, or about seventeen other names. In this variation, the pieces move as usual, but the rules are slightly altered.
...
1
vote
2answers
85 views
1
vote
1answer
188 views
Fairy Chess #2: The Angel
The sequel you've all (er, at least some of you have) been waiting for!
Part 1 is here if you want to check it out.
In this game, we have an entire army against a single piece yet again. This time,...
0
votes
1answer
68 views
Reconstructing A Chess Game #3 (fanmade)
I'm a huge fan of the first 2 parts made by @Evargalo, so i'll try too
My teacher once told me a strategy to defeat the enemy in the second turn.
I was so excited (:P) I forgot it. Can you help me?
4
votes
1answer
211 views
A Battle of Dysfunctional Kings (Chess)
So recently I've learned about fairy chess and I've decided to write a puzzle based around the topic. Today's variation features a chess board which is missing eight squares (A1, A8, C3, C6, F3, F6, ...
17
votes
2answers
2k views
Fairy Chess #1- The Mastermind
(Fairy chess is a general term for any kind of chess variant with pieces that aren't used in the normal game)
(Inspired by The Black Prowler (chess))
In this variant, white has their entire army ...
8
votes
2answers
714 views
Reconstructing A Chess Game #2
My 5yo pupil, Magnus, is playing his first chess tournament. Although I missed his first game, @Elder helped me reconstruct this important first win from the few clues I could collect.
Alas, the ...
3
votes
1answer
94 views
A Scrambled Game
This was inspired by my earlier puzzles, the Torn Scoresheet series.
In the following chess game, exactly one letter or number in each move (White or Black) is either exactly 1 higher or 1 lower than ...
