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White to play and Force Black to mate White in 5 moves.



I'm on 1.Be6 and have it solved for 1..fxe6 and 1...f6 but cannot solve 1...f5.





cannot get this one. 1...f4

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@greenpawn34

I might have it... definitely double check me, though. I think black's moves after f5 are all only moves.


These are called "Selfmates".

"Helpmate" usually means that white and black collaborate to checkmate black.

1 edit
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Hi spidey widey,

Yes that must be it. I was to fixated keeping the White King on f1.
The stipulation said mate had to happen on or before Black's fifth move,
a bit misleading unless there is a quicker forced mate. We have five moves.

It is from the lastest CHESS (there is prize but it would have been won by now).

Hi BigDoggProblem,

Yes, I always get them mixed up. Though the thread title works.

It was composed by Andrei Selivanov in 2000. Good!

Maybe you can rescue the thread by giving us a Helpmate....please do...and not too hard.

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@greenpawn34 said
Hi spidey widey,

Yes that must be it. I was to fixated keeping the White King on f1.
The stipulation said mate had to happen on or before Black's fifth move,
a bit misleading unless there is a quicker forced mate. We have five moves.

It is from the lastest CHESS (there is prize but it would have been won by now).

Hi BigDoggProblem,

Yes, I always get them mix ...[text shortened]... . Good!

Maybe you can rescue the thread by giving us a Helpmate....please do...and not too hard.
OK...

G. Backsi

Helpmate in 2, 2 solutions

Black moves first. White's 2nd move should be mate.

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@bigdoggproblem said
OK...

G. Backsi
[fen]8/8/7K/8/1R6/k7/1R1p4/2b2N2[/fen]
Helpmate in 2, 2 solutions

Black moves first. White's 2nd move should be mate.
Found one at least:



I guess pgn's can't be hidden lol
Second one is a toughie...
EDIT: OK just got it
it requires a horsey promotion

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So maybe that last one was a bit too easy. Here's another that's a little bit harder:


Helpmate in 6

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Never had a chance to get the last one, got this copied for me to do at work!

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I think I have it.

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@greenpawn34

That's it.

The main challenge is to get a white pawn promoted without stalemate!

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Hi BigDoggProblem

Which of course happened on an earlier attempt.

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That last one was also by G. Backsi.

Here's another one:


F. Chlubna

Helpmate in 5

1 edit
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I think I have this one as well. it's a sister to the Selfmate I had in
the blog where a Black Knight shields the Black King from White Rooks.
This time the Black Knight shields the White King from Rooks. This one is excellent.



the blog helpmate.

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@greenpawn34 said
I think I have this one as well. it's a sister to the Selfmate I had in
the blog where a Black Knight shields the Black King from White Rooks.
This time the Black Knight shields the White King from Rooks. This one is excellent.

[pgn]
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/1B6/2r2n2/K ...[text shortened]... sk of repeating myself, Black has no choice but to play...} 13... Nxe2 {Checkmate. Brilliant.}[/pgn]
The theme is a "Rundlauf" - the Black Knight returns to the square where it started.

I learned about this problem while trying to compose my own helpmate with a Knight Rundlauf and check screening. This one was much more economical [meaning, less material on the board] as well as shorter [less wasted/non-thematic moves] than mine!

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Hi BigDoggProblem

I never noticed the Black Knight ends up on it's original square.
This makes it all the more amazing.

I got the idea for that one fairly quickly.
It was the placing of the f6 Knight and why was it there.
(it is how I have stumbled upon a few solutions....what is that piece there for.)


I saw if the f6 Knight went to g4 then the King is in a mating net
waiting for Bxc6. Then it's just a matter of getting the White King to e1