This comes from a book Amusements in Mathematics, by H E Dudeney (No 355)

Strolling into one of the rooms of a London club, I notice a position left by two players who had gone. It is evident that White has checkmated Black. But how did he do it??

The board looks like this:

White has a Bishop on b1, pawns on a2, f6, g5, h4. King on g8
Black has a pawn on h5 and his King on g6.

by pushing the f pawn

Originally posted by CalJust
This comes from a book Amusements in Mathematics, by H E Dudeney (No 355)

Strolling into one of the rooms of a London club, I notice a position left by two players who had gone. It is evident that White has checkmated Black. But how did he do it??

The board looks like this:

White has a Bishop on b1, pawns on a2, f6, g5, h4. King on g8
Black has a pawn on h5 and his King on g6.

Both answers are wrong. Either way, black would have been in check.
But to be honest, I don't see the correct answer 🙁

good point piderman... the bishop couldnt have moved to its location to put black in check, so it must have been a revealed check

I think Mephisto was right.

The board would have been set up as such

6K1/5p2/6k1/4P1Pp/7P/8/P7/1B6

Black then would advance his f pawn 2 spaces to f5 to block check.
Then White would take the f pawn (en passent) exf6 resulting in checkmate

Originally posted by opsoccergurl11
good point piderman... the bishop couldnt have moved to its location to put black in check, so it must have been a revealed check

Problem is, there is no piece that could have moved from the b1/h7 diagonal, except from the f6 pawn. But, stood the pawn on f5 it would already have been checkmate.

Anyway, I think the two people in the club had set up this position to discuss this very same problem 🙄

Originally posted by eyeqpc
I think Mephisto was right.

The board would have been set up as such

6K1/5p2/6k1/4P1Pp/7P/8/P7/1B6

Black then would advance his f pawn 2 spaces to f5 to block check.
Then White would take the f pawn (en passent) exf6 resulting in checkmate

Originally posted by piderman
No, this is correct. Set up the board:

6K1/5p2/6k1/6Pp/4P2P/8/P7/1B6

Then:
1. e5+ f5 2. exf6++

Good work, piderman! That is the only possible solution.

Very intriguing puzzle! The thing I wonder about is .... Where was Blacks King before moving to g6?. It could NOT have been on the f5 square... example e4+ Kf5-g6 because of the B@b1.

The best I can come up with is that the white g-pawn was at g4 and that would allow the Black King to occupy h6. If so then the e.p. solution works.... 1.g4-g5+ Kh6-g6 2.e4-e5+ f7-f5 3.e5-f6 e.p.++.

Would the person with the solution post the answer please?

whats all the darn symbols mean? im not understanding the solution because i dunno what the ex and what not mean!

Originally posted by Garrison
whats all the darn symbols mean? im not understanding the solution because i dunno what the ex and what not mean!