Hi everyone, i was reading in my local newspaper recently, an article on the 1993 Kasparov vs Short match. In the article, it also stated that there are eight diffrent ways to get checkmate in two moves. Could anyone confirm if thats true, because i found it hard to believe.

cheers friends

Steve45

It's right.

You mix up the move order playing 1.f3 or 1 f4 and 1...e5 or 1..e6

1.f3 e5 2.g4 Qh4 mate (1)
1.g4 e5 2.f3 Qh4 mate (2)
1.f4 e5 2.g4 Qh4 mate (3) Game 5229133
1.g4 e5 2.f4 Qh4 mate (4)


then do the same again except this time Black plays 1...e6

An article about a Kasparov - Short match that,somehow,manages to mention the number of ways to mate in 2 from the starting position.

Hmm,am I the only one who wonders about that?

Hi Wilfy

I can quite believe that. Often these articles in newspapers are written by
non-players or lads who just know the rules so off they go to WIKI or another
source and lift a chess fact to gloss up their piece.
Or if the columnist is a good player he may just drop in a piece of irrelevant
information for non-players to mull over.

Just had a quick surf about and found this good site.
It has a 'did you know section'.
A writer could use any one of these 'facts' to drop into a piece.

http://www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/did_you_know.htm

Item no 43 reads.

From the starting position, there are eight different ways to Mate in two moves
and 355 different ways to Mate in three moves.

Steve is not alone. The site had an email.

http://www.chess-poster.com/english/mail/mail_2008/eight_ways_to_mate_in_two_moves.htm

Except this time the writer thinks it can be done in more than 8 ways.

-------------------

Some of the 'facts' are wrong and now possibly out of date.

Item 47:
The new Pawn move, advancing two squares on its first move instead of one,
was first introduced in Spain in 1280. "

That's wrong. It happened in the 15th century.

Item 52:

"Yasser Seirawan (1960- ), first American to beat a reigning World Champion.
He defeated Anatoly Karpov in 1982."

Marshall beat Lasker (then the current world champion) in Paris 1900 in a tournament game.
Not forgetting Fischer's wins v the reigning World Champion Spassky in 1972.

It's not that I didn't believe it.It's that I couldn't understand why anyone would slip that info into a report of such a match.What's the relevancy,eh?

But you could be right.
And perhaps more words = bigger paycheck 😀

Originally posted by steve45
Hi everyone, i was reading in my local newspaper recently, an article on the 1993 Kasparov vs Short match. In the article, it also stated that there are eight diffrent ways to get checkmate in two moves. Could anyone confirm if thats true, because i found it hard to believe.

cheers friends

Steve45

Originally posted by Wilfriedva
An article about a Kasparov - Short match that,somehow,manages to mention the number of ways to mate in 2 from the starting position.

Hmm,am I the only one who wonders about that?

Originally posted by steve45
Are you saying that when your out with friends, one conversation cant lead on to another subject to talk about. Thats what it sounds like to me.

Originally posted by Wilfriedva
It's not that I didn't believe it.It's that I couldn't understand why anyone would slip that info into a report of such a match.What's the relevancy,eh?

But you could be right.
And perhaps more words = bigger paycheck 😀