The Greatest Forgotten Chess Puzzle

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Puzzle FEN:
2b5/4R3/5P2/5k2/5p1B/7P/ppp3P1/4K2R w K – 0 1

Puzzle Details:
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The chess set behind me:
The Pieces:
The Board:

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286 Comments

  1. g4+ was the pretty obvious 1st move (only move, w/o much thinking actually.) 0-0 was a bit tricky, as we didn't know if it was still an option at such a late point in the game. Once 0-0 was allowed, rest was also pretty obvious, as all moves are more or less forced.

  2. 6:20 White can simply play b2 and promote instead of taking bishop.

  3. I didn't watch the video, but i swear that i will get +1k elo if this is a stalemate, because it happens

  4. This puzzle goes crazy. Good explanation though!

  5. Happy turkey day Nelson, what happened to your 3 problem rating analysis? Separated you from the multitude of chess streamers!

  6. When considering puzzles, you have to ignore common sense – like the unrealistic scenario of castling in the END GAME. Otherwise you'll never see the solution in cases like this.

  7. Pretty sure I found the solution from the picture
    Push pawn, opponent queens , you move king, opponent takes rook, you queen mate, but they will probably defend the promotion with the queen

  8. how do it know if there is a castle it is literally like a endgame

  9. When C2 pawns move forward and bishop take it. Then we dont need take bishop by other pawn we can simply move that pawn to get queen as it is defended by bishop. How that line will play out?

  10. Hard to plan a move if castling is unknown to be available this late in a game.

  11. Black can win, white only needs to blunder once

  12. The castle move is hard to spot because it is not even clear that casteling is still alowed, in a position this late in the game the king or rook most probably moved at some point (and end up at starting squares) making casteling ileagal.

  13. Thing is, if I was white in that position, I would’ve already assumed that I couldn’t castle.

  14. Pretty good puzzle, like that it uses enpassant, which I have never been able to use in an actual game XD

  15. Great find! This is the so-called Valladão Task, a problem showing promotion, en passant capture and castling. The underpromotion to a knight is a bonus. Btw., I have not found this problem in the known problem databases. Probably someone else will have more luck.

  16. At 6:21 instead of taking bishop what if the pawn promote to queen and in next move another queen..does black have chance

  17. The real question is: Why black has 3 pawns ready to promote?

  18. You save the fen? Is that the position on the board?

  19. After you showed why black Kh5 was worse for black than Kh6, Bg5+ seemed pretty appealing to me and I'm surprised that white's intermediate check with the Rook didn't come up in that line again.
    Did you not show it because you already showed it or is losing the Bishop actually so bad that white can't win even if they get a Queen first?

  20. What about at 6.20 not bxc1Q but b2-b1Q ?

  21. "That pawn has the option to capture" No. That pawn is obligated to capture. En passant is forced, we all know this.

  22. A Google search says that this problem was composed by Yochanan Afek in 2011. I don't think that YouTube will allow me to post a link, but try searching for the ARVES chess endgames study association.

  23. 6:45
    Stock fish 15 is suggesting pawn promotion on A1 should promote to a Rook. Why a Rook?

  24. In all fairness how do we KNOW castling is an option?

  25. "Imma castle with no pawns on the 2nd rank, in the end game, on move 30-something." Utter madness lol.

  26. Several have mentioned the convention that castling is allowed unless an analysis proves the either the rook or king moved in the past. How about a variant of this? Make a puzzle which the last move can be proven to be a two-space pawn move with the solution starting with an en passant.

  27. NGL this is the first time I've seen An pasant in action. I've only just heard of it

  28. Nelson really found a good study

  29. My take was 1 O-O and 2. G4. Why doesn't this work?

  30. The black bishop could take that pawn, then in line of sight to take out the rook, so the rook would have to move, unless you want to sacrifice your rook, or try to keep black's king in check.

  31. that is not a position. A FEN string is a position.

  32. You didn’t forget the “en passant” rule. Pawn to G4. F4 takes G4 by moving to G3. I was very surprised when I learned that rule.

  33. Interesting puzzle. The ones with castling are always hard for me because I don't know whether the king has lost castling rights. Just because a rook and the king or on their starting squares doesn't mean they didn't move at one point then just move back. Could you specify at the beginning of a video like this if castling is still possible?

  34. I saw correctly until castles part which seemed funny at such an endgame scenario

  35. i saw mate in 3 and thought you lost your edge, then on croissant

  36. I knew it should become a knight at first glance!

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