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Black to retract his last move and help White mate in one

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

OK, we’re entering the realm of fairy chess. Black is to retract (take back) his last move and then help White mate in one by making another move. There’s an ironclad logic to this, so don’t give up too easily!


This was a composition from 1936 by C.E. Lind. The first thing that must have struck you was that there were no pieces to mate with! Thus, there must have been a piece on the board before Black’s last move. Consequently, one of the Black pawns must have taken a White piece, but which one and where, right? You can eliminate quite a few pawns as “suspects” right off the bat, which will lead you to the answer: The black pawn that was on b4 had taken the white knight on c3. So, instead of taking the Nc3 on its last move, Black would have to play Pb3, helping White to play Nb5#! Cute!

 


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