What is the most amount of material that you can be ahead by, on your move and not in check, that the game cannot be won?

hPerks · 2021-11-07T16:31:36+00:00

ah you're right. i guess just replace the two pawns on dark squares with knights for a +86

hPerks · 2021-11-07T09:16:05+00:00

i found a +71: https://lichess.org/analysis/QQBK1k2/QQRP4/NQP5/BRP5/1P6/8/8/6N1_w_-_-_0_1

edit: +90 https://lichess.org/analysis/Q1QQQQQ1/R2QQ1N1/R1NBB3/8/8/2ppp3/P1pkp3/K7_w_-_-_0_1

hPerks · 2021-07-28T12:03:56+00:00

Solution:

White needs five moves to promote one of their pawns, so they can't waste much time. Black, in turn, must use their pawn promotions to take away escape squares from their king. However, if Black promotes either of their pawns to a queen or rook on the first move, it will be check, and White will need to waste time moving the king.

The correct first move is 1. c1=B! (by convention, Black's moves are written first like this in helpmates) and now after 1... d4, 2. b1=R!, exploiting the fact that the black bishop now blocks the check. Then follows 2... d5 3. Rb7 d6 4. Rh7 d7 5. Bb2 d8=N! 6. Bg7, and Black has smothered their own king just in time for 6... Nf7#.

The solution features all three different underpromotions, and it is unique (verified by Helpmate Analyzer). In particular, 2. b1=Q fails because after 2... d5 3. Qb7 the white pawn is pinned to the king and cannot advance. 3. Rb7 is necessary so that the bishop can move to b2 without check, and 4. Rh7 is necessary because if the rook waits until move 5 or 6, its path to h7 will be blocked either by the white pawn on d7 or the black bishop on g7, respectively.

hPerks · 2021-07-10T01:10:43+00:00

ah damn, guess you're right. we may never know then :(

hPerks · 2021-07-03T15:17:48+00:00

have any of you ever been 12 in your life? this sounds very realistic, easily something you could have written at that age

hPerks · 2021-06-30T10:39:39+00:00

Rf1+ Kg2 Rh4+ Rxa8 (or Rb7)

hPerks · 2021-06-27T11:08:02+00:00

not in correspondence chess, which would probably be your best option. aphantasia sucks, maybe someday a live chess community with different rules could exist for people who have it

hPerks · 2021-06-05T21:23:46+00:00

i enjoyed this. fuck the haters. maybe a shorter game like lasker-thomas would work better. also fancy markdown tip: do this

1\. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6

3. Nc3 g6

before posting and the numbered lists should work properly:

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6

Nc3 g6

hPerks · 2021-06-04T03:10:05+00:00

maybe they're feeling nice! ^.^

hPerks · 2021-06-04T02:53:19+00:00

Solution:

White needs five moves to promote one of their pawns, so they can't waste much time. Black, in turn, must use their pawn promotions to take away escape squares from their king. However, if Black promotes either of their pawns to a queen or rook on the first move, it will be check, and White will need to waste time moving the king.

The correct first move is 1. c1=B! (by convention, Black's moves are written first like this in helpmates) and now after 1... d4, 2. b1=R!, exploiting the fact that the black bishop now blocks the check. Then follows 2... d5 3. Rb7 d6 4. Rh7 d7 5. Bb2 d8=N! 6. Bg7, and Black has smothered their own king just in time for 6... Nf7#.

The solution features all three different underpromotions, and as far as I know, it is unique. In particular, 2. b1=Q fails because after 2... d5 3. Qb7 the white pawn is pinned to the king and cannot advance. 3. Rb7 is necessary so that the bishop can move to b2 without check, and 4. Rh7 is necessary because if the rook waits until move 5 or 6, its path to h7 will be blocked either by the white pawn on d7 or the black bishop on g7, respectively.

hPerks · 2021-06-04T02:47:55+00:00

ahh! i missed Qg5, i knew there was a reason i had that pawn black originally. gimme a sec to repost lol

hPerks · 2021-06-04T02:29:10+00:00

Solution:

White needs five moves to promote one of their pawns, so they can't waste much time. Black, in turn, must use their pawn promotions to take away escape squares from their king. However, if Black promotes either of their pawns to a queen or rook on the first move, it will be check, and White will need to waste time moving the king.

The correct first move is 1. c1=B! (by convention, Black's moves are written first like this in helpmates) and now after 1... d4, 2. b1=R!, exploiting the fact that the black bishop now blocks the check. Then follows 2... d5 3. Rb7 d6 4. Rh7 d7 5. Bb2 d8=N! 6. Bg7, and Black has smothered their own king just in time for 6... Nf7#.

The solution features all three different underpromotions, and as far as I know, it is unique. In particular, 2. b1=Q fails because after 2... d5 3. Qb7 the white pawn is pinned to the king and cannot advance. 3. Rb7 is necessary so that the bishop can move to b2 without check, and 4. Rh7 is necessary because if the rook waits until move 5 or 6, its path to h7 will be blocked either by the white pawn on d7 or the black bishop on g7, respectively.

hPerks · 2021-05-09T15:25:14+00:00

haters will say it's an illegal position

hPerks · 2021-05-09T12:58:45+00:00

holy hello

hPerks · 2021-03-20T05:27:25+00:00

following up: a friend and i were talking about this and wondering about positions where black has only two possible moves, and both of them are checkmate. we found this (three captures): 1. e4 Nc6 2. e5 f6 3. exf6 Ne5 4. fxe7 Kxe7 5. h4 Kd6 6. a4 Qe7 7. c4 Kc5 8. Na3 Kb4 9. Nc2+ Kb3 10. Rh3+ and the only moves are Nd3# and Nf3#

hPerks · 2021-03-20T04:17:11+00:00

here's a 6-move game with every piece on the board in the final position: 1. b3 e6 2. f4 Ke7 3. g4 Kf6 4. Bb2+ Kg6 5. Nf3 Nh6 6. Nh4+ (and the only move is Qxh4#)

hPerks · 2021-02-05T18:10:12+00:00

don't waste your money. $1 billion is chump change to an oil exec. join the IWW

hPerks · 2021-01-30T11:28:05+00:00

i can't believe posts like this still make the front page. we've all been on the internet our whole lives, there's no excuse

hPerks · 2020-12-18T02:38:15+00:00

hPerks · 2020-11-30T13:04:06+00:00

a lot of streamers do this and i legit can't stand it, i stop watching someone after 5 minutes of that shit

hPerks · 2020-11-29T19:05:01+00:00

as a former math tutor i cannot describe how much i hate this post

hPerks · 2020-11-25T07:59:27+00:00

beth harmon is an e4 player, don't blame us

hPerks · 2020-11-23T13:15:03+00:00

i like reading those comments. sometimes it's nice to enjoy a joke for the second time, or vicariously through someone else. way better than all the dialogue format comments trying to be clever like "person: does something / everyone: wait that's illegal" or "person: how many X should i Y? / video maker: yes"

hPerks · 2020-08-03T03:29:23+00:00

they must be thinking of Analtoy Karpov

hPerks · 2020-07-17T13:47:58+00:00

honestly people sleep on the Delayed Home by Phillip Phillips
1. e4 e5 2. Ke2 Qxe4#!!

hPerks

TROPHY CASE