Tuesday 16 March 2021

An ancient Chinese puzzle

 This has been described as 'an ancient Chinese puzzle' by H.E. Dudeney, although I suspect there is a bit of creative license in play.

It is White to Mate in 3, under the condition that each White piece must be moved once, and only once.


HE Dudeney
Mate in 3


5 comments:

Mark said...

Is the "move each piece only once" include the final mating move?

Scott H said...

I thought it is mate in 2: 1. Rd6, Kc8 2. Ra8 mate

Shaun Press said...

@Scott H, you are correct that it is a mate in 2, but the puzzle specifies each White piece *must* be moved once (and only once). So in this case, the White King hasn't moved yet.

Anonymous said...

1 Rd6 Kc8 2 Ka7 Kc7 3 Rac6 mate. MP

Anonymous said...

I had typed a lengthy reply enumerating over every candidate move why the puzzle is impossible until I looked closely at the eventual first move of the solution ;)