ChessBot Blog - Tricky And Funny Chess Positions

Straight to the business - let's look at 5 cool puzzles, etudes and chess positions that Stockfish can't solve.

Absolutely amazing puzzle. The engine at Depth=72 shows a draw and a meaningless move with the king. Can you find a series of moves that will refute Stockfish and upset the black king?

FEN: 8/5K2/3p3p/3p3P/pp1P4/rkb1R3/p1p3P1/n1B2B2 w - - 0 1

Cool etude. It would seem that nothing can be done here to win, but there is a way. Stockfish again absolutely does not see this path, showing a dead draw (Depth=48). And what about you?

FEN: rk6/pP1p2p1/B7/3K1P2/8/8/7b/8 w - - 0 1

Let's start with an easy one. However, Stockfish evaluates it completely wrong, showing -14 win for Black.

Can you find the right move?

FEN: 3B4/1r2p3/r2p1p2/bkp1P1p1/1p1P1PPp/p1P4P/PP1K4/3B4 w - - 0 1

And once again Stockfish does not see the win. Engine shows dead draw at Depth=58 and move with a knight. But maybe it's just the wrong knight?

A difficult puzzle, but try to find at least the general concept.

FEN: 8/1p1pNpbk/1q1P4/pP2p2K/P3N3/4P1P1/3P4/8 w - - 0 1

Beautiful chess position created by Matous in 1975 that Stockfish could not solve without making the first move. Engine shows draw and the wrong move with a pawn.

Can you find the best move?

FEN: n1QBq1k1/5p1p/5KP1/p7/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 1

Solutions are presented using the ChessBotX program, equipped with the Crystal chess engine.

It is a clone of Stockfish, but specially designed to understand difficult etudes and puzzles.

A draw is easily achieved by the bishop sacrifice

.

After that, we simply move the entire pawn chain forward, giving checks to the king.

When the chain is closed, a draw is formed on the board that is insurmountable for the opponent.

This puzzle is called "King Walk" for a reason. The main idea is to bring the king to the d7 square.

To do this, with the first move we force an exchange of pawns with the move

, providing the shortest path for our king.

Then we take the rook on a8 with our pawn. After which Kc7 and the inevitable mate with the bishop Bb7#.

A difficult but beautiful etude. Let's look at it a little closer.

Black has no moves. If we manage to bring the king to the d5 square, we will deliver checkmate with a bishop on the next move.

The problem is that we can't do this right away because Black has no moves. And if we move our king, it will immediately lead to a stalemate.

So, the first move is

! We block our own bishop, preventing a stalemate from happening. Black's only move is Kc4.

We answer - Rd2, with the idea of then placing the rook on h2. Next - Kb3, Rf2. Black can only move their bishop, but it doesn’t matter where it goes. For example Bb2. We answer Rf3.

This dance of rook and bishop continues until our rook gets to the square h1.

After that we play Rh3+. And then we start to move our pawn on g2 up to g5 square. Why?

Simply because the opponent will be forced to take the pawn on g5. After this, the stalemate structure disappears, since the pawn on g5 can move freely.

After that, we implement our original plan. We bring the king to the d5 square and checkmate with the bishop.

The main idea of this problem is to lock the queen and king in a cage, taking them out of the game.

Fortunately, the position is such that two knights are able to do this, causing a real rout of Black's position.

We start by attacking the queen with

, then add a series of checks to the king. Further moves may vary, but the general essence remains the same. Take a look at the PGN and animation below:

1. Nc8 Qd8 2. Ng5+ Kg8 3. Ne7+ Kf8 4. Nh7+ Ke8 5. Nd5 Qb8 6. Nc7+ Kd8 7. b6 f5 8. Kg6 f4 9. Kxg7 fxg3 10. Ng5 g2 11. Nh3 Kc8 12. Ng1 Kd8 13. Kg6 Kc8 14. Kg5 Kd8 15. Kg4 Kc8 16. Kg3 Kd8 17. Kxg2 Kc8 18. Kg3 Kd8 19. Kg4 Kc8 20. Kf5 Kd8 21. Kf6 Kc8 22. Kf7 Kd8 23. Nf3 e4 24. Ne5 Qc8 25. Kf8 Qa8 26. Nxa8 Kc8 27. Ke7 Kb8 28. Kxd7 Kxa8 29. Ke8 Kb8 30. d7 Ka8 31. d8=Q#

Stockfish at depth=50 thinks it's a draw. But there is a cool move here that immediately changes the engine’s evaluation to a forced win for White.

And this move is

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