mantine73 wrote:
And it cant be b3 because both black pieces attack the square
Yup. How can the king be there?
Where was the white king originally?
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MARattigan wrote:
I've seen it before, but I don't think it took me more than five minutes. I wouldn't call it incredibly hard.
Still a nice puzzle.
Creating such puzzles would be even harder. I wonder what level of chess knowledge or flexibility is required to compose such puzzles. I have never successfully made one good retro puzzle before.
May 16, 2022
0
#24
visveee wrote:
See. This position was played over the board, and white knocked off their king. You are the adjudicator, and there is no rules for disqualification is a piece is knocked off. Try to find where the white king originally was. Original puzzle by Raymond Smullyan.
Note: It was Black's turn to move.
Good to see a credit for Smullyan. But the note that "it was Black's turn" is unnecessary (besides a little confusing), as it's something for the solver to work out. The original problem certainly didn't have such a "clue".
This position featured on the cover of Smullyan's book, a collection of retrograde-analysis problems.
C2 ? will be anwers?
RocketLeagueGO wrote:
I know the answer.in the last few moves the white king is in check by the bishop.white block the check with the pawn and black en passant again giving check.white took Back the pawn.then the king was knocked of with black to move.so the king was on c3
You were supposed to keep this a secret for the benefit of future attemptors.
For extra credit, who knocked the white king off the board?
lfPatriotGames wrote:
For extra credit, who knocked the white king off the board?
Also, what would be the result of the game with best play by both sides?
May 16, 2022
0
#29
Should be a draw.
White can't checkmate with only a bishop and Black can't checkmate without a white king.
I am so sorry; I didn't realize the phrasing "was Black's turn to move" would cause controversy. And please do not spoil the answer. I will modify the puzzle according to your remarks. Thank you for solving.
lfPatriotGames wrote:
For extra credit, who knocked the white king off the board?
LOL, a clumsy person who has never played over-the-board. Happened in my first two tournaments a few months back.
RocketLeagueGO wrote:
I know the answer.in the last few moves the white king is in check by the bishop.white block the check with the pawn and black en passant again giving check.white took Back the pawn.then the king was knocked of with black to move.so the king was on c3
Correct! This puzzle requires out-of-the-box thinking, as does the rest of Smullyan's puzzles. For more puzzles like this, check his "Chess Mysteries" series.
I looked up the answer... a little disappointed I didn't think of that, because I've thought up similar puzzles on my own... at the end of the day it seems I'm always cursed to fail any puzzle involving retro analysis lol.
But yeah, IMO it's hard... I'm sure someone can solve it, but not me.
I got correct as well and I know what happened, but I initially put the king on the wrong square. I forgot that the Black king was in check after "that move". Took me four minutes to realise what was happening. The position of interest (with the king being on that correct square) can be achieved from the standard starting position, so that puzzle is legal.
After being active in the Illegal Position Contest thread for the past years, I have become more aware of such situations.
I'm not going to spoil the puzzle by posting the solution here, but I'll give a clue for future readers: the board was slightly more populated in the preceding moves.
(I'm sure everyone on this thread as of my post has known the solution by now)