This Chess Problem Will Amaze You

Check Out The Position Yourself:
2N5/p7/q1p2p2/kp6/3P4/PP2K3/5P2/2B5 w - - 0 1

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[olgaustuzhanina]

This problem was composed by Mark Liburkin and published in Shakhmaty v USSR (1939). It's unfortunate that you didn't mention the actual author of this problem in your video. He has composed numerous fascinating studies, I highly recommend everybody interested to check them out.

[caioreis]

There is one additional trick at the end that you didn’t point out.

After you trap the Queen, it will try to sacrifice itself on a4. You’ll be tempted to capture it right away with the pawn, but if you do, the king will capture your knight and it will lead to a drawn end game. You should first move your knight away with check, and just then capture the Queen.

It totally didn’t happen to me when I tried to play this solution against Stockfish…

[iladshyanchess]

I never thought queen could be trapped with 3 pieces only such a fascinating puzzle. Especially with the king moves that was crazy.

[ABx]

Really amazing puzzle, thoroughly enjoyed this one

[QuantenMagier]

It's interesting that many chess programs (including Stockfish 14-15 and GnuChess) get this wrong; at first I thought this was due to principal variations (PV) in iterative deepening search, but increasing the PV value to 9 still got it wrong so this node must have a very high cutoff. Somehow my own chess program also got this wrong and that tries all possible moves unless there is a Zobrist hash collision or this node is cutoff during alpha-beta pruning. Maybe alpha-beta pruning does not work correctly in Zugzwang situations, that would explain why most chess programs get this wrong. I'll have a deeper look at that when I have more time. ^^

[nickcellino]

I really enjoyed that one! The winning idea of maneuvering the King to a square where it guards 3 escape squares so the Queen would be captured if it moves to any one of the squares is incredibly clever and surprising. If I reached this position as White, I would be tempted to resign in what was a totally winning position.

This puzzle is also another wonderful example of solutions we humans can easily understand after we see them played out to the end but incredibly powerful chess engines like Stockfish can't decipher correctly, at least at the beginning.

Recently I submitted another example of puzzles that baffle Stockfish but not us. I would enjoy watching more videos with the same theme.

[austinnar]

I love how this looks like a position you could actually see in a real game. So many puzzles with ideas this interesting start from such contrived positions that it takes away from the wonder of it.

[Gosuminer]

Fascinating, Stockfish 15 did not find the winning move even on depth 62. I think for some reason it cuts Bd2 from the decision tree early on and never revisits this possibility.

[thisguyispeculiar]

Chad White king coming together with his fellow Knight and pawns to coordinate the best Queen trap ever.

[gabby_]

When I realize the queen is literally forced to give themselves up, I wheezed in laughter.

[williamd]

This is probably the best puzzle I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a lot of cool puzzles. I can’t stop watching this video lol.

[rogergeyer]

That's SO beautiful. I got the first two key moves and saw the joke including that the queen was trapped. But I missed the idea of covering A6, and actually winning the queen with zugzwang (trying to solve it without setting up a board and moving the pieces around). I do feel a little better that a strong engine didn't see it either, given that moving the pieces around (virtually) is what it DOES.

Problems aren't usually my "thing", but I love the endgame, and these problems you tend to bring up re the endgame bring up relevant principles. Fantastic, and thank you for sharing ideas like this.

[ceejay]

That's an amazing puzzle. I spotted some of the early moves but I thought the plan was to get the white king to c3 and then play a4+ forcing the queen to capture. The actual solution is astounding. Thanks for your clear analysis.

[Umranvuire]

I usually think that Nelson oversells certain puzzles... But this one... is legit art.

[tubebrocoli]

this might have been the best puzzle so far!

[alvossozaandronito]

it’s cool because the pawn on a7 is not only blocking it’s own queen, but also preventing a stalemate. the second the black queen moves to wherever it wants to get captured, the a6 square becomes available for the black pawn to move, thus avoiding a stalemate

[ДендроидВиверновичДраконов]

Wow! Great and beautiful idea! Thanks!

[arikgershon]

Cool puzzle! It’s also important to note that wherever the queen moves, it will not be stalemate because the king can move to a6.

[ChasseAuxHiboux]

Puzzles about domination are always beautiful!

[dentonyoung]

Very nice! Reminds me of a position in The Fireside Book of Chess where Black has a queen in a corner that ends up being "zugzwanged" and having to move, and thus give up its life.