Hard chess puzzle # 0001

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Puzzle No : 0001

Difficulty level : hard

Description : Gain a piece or check mate

Next Move : Black

Player level : Advanced

Hard chess puzzle 0001

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Solution to hard chess puzzle 0001

At this puzzle, next move is by black. The objective of the puzzle is to gain a piece or checkmate. The white king is at e1. The pieces that are capable to give check are the black queen at a5 and black knight at d4.

The pawn at c2 is not supported and the same can be attacked by the knight. This move will also result in check to the king.

Since the king is now in check, he has two options. Either he can move to the square d2 intending to capture the knight at c2 or he can move to f1 to escape the attack. In the former case you can capture the rook and in the latter case you can checkmate. The king can not move to d1 or e2 since these squares are attacked by the bishop at h5. Both options are discussed here.

Gaining the rook

If the king moves to the square d2, the knight can capture the rook at d4.

Capturing of rook is done without losing the knight since the rook is supported only by the pawn at c3. This pawn cannot capture the knight at d4 since the pawn in pinned to the king.

Now the king may move to d3 or e3 intending to capture the knight.

In either case, your white knight can move to e6 and safely escape from the king.

This is one of the solution. You gave a check to the king by knight and captured the rook through fork.

Checkmate

If the king moves to f1, the queen can capture the pawn at d2.

Now the White moves the pawn from g2 to g3 to prevent checkmate in the next move. You can move your bishop to f3 to stop king moving to g2 in the next move.

Next move is obviously check mate. With a tentative move of white pawn from e5 to d6, the queen can move to e1 and checkmate. The king can not capture queen since the queen is supported by the knight at c2.