Thanksgiving Day puzzle

All Things Chess
1

Black made the last move.

The above position is:

  • a dead position
  • not a dead position
  • an Absolute Turkey (there does not exist a sequence of legal moves leading from the standard initial position to this position)

Puzzle 2:

Black made the last move.

Same question – the above position is:

  • a dead position
  • not a dead position
  • an Absolute Turkey (there does not exist a sequence of legal moves leading from the standard initial position to this position)

Please note: If either of the above positions is/are an Absolute Turkey, I will consider it incorrect if you say dead position or not a dead position. In other words, if there appears to be more than one correct answer in either or both of the above puzzles, then Absolute Turkey trumps the other answers in that puzzle.

Also note: I said “Black made the last move” rather than “White to move” in order to avoid getting tangled up in kbachler-type arguments such as “If it’s a dead position, how can it be either player’s move? If the position is dead, the game is over, and it’s nobody’s move.”

Bill Smythe

2

The white pawns have to make 15 captures, which is possible if blacks a b and c pawns all promoted first and manouvered into range. That’s all of blacks pieces. The extra bishop or bishops have to be promoted a and b pawns.

Position two must be a turkey because the pawn promoted on a black square and it couldn’t have captured a black piece (since the other pawns made all the captures.

Position one seems possible only if Whites last move was gxf7+ and black played Kg8-h8. If white now plays Kc2 black has legal moves. Since black can then go somewhere other than the h8 corner,position 1 is not dead.

3

The one thing I’m not sold on is whites ability to get his pieces to where they can be captured without ever making a non-capturing pawn move. He can mark time with his knights and his a and b pawns can move. Can anyone prove it impossible and this show position 1 is also a Turkey!

4

Or, can anybody come up with a “proof game” to show that position 1 is NOT a Turkey?

Bill Smythe

5

If it starts 1) Nc3 Nc6, 2) Nd5 Nd4, 3) Nb6 Nf3+ 4) exf3 axb6 then we already have white pieces able to move out and two of the necessary 17 captures done (yet to be captured are the the white b-pawn and the other 14 black pieces/pawns, including the promoting c-pawn and two b-pawns).

6

Well the puzzle conditions don’t require proof of the claim in the form of a game score, so I’ll stick with my claimed answer. Won’t have a chess set for a couple of days

7

The last move by each player in position one looks like it must have been
N-1) g5xh6+ Kg7-h8

8

1.Nc3 d5 2.Nb1 d4 3.Nc3 d3 4.Nb1 Bh3 5.Nc3 e5 6.Nb1 e4 7.Nc3 e3 8.Nb1 Qh4
9.Nc3 f5 10.Nb1 f4 11.Nc3 f3 12.Nb1 g5 13.Nc3 g4 14.Nb1 Bh6 15.Nc3 g3

16.Nb1 Ne7 17.cxd3 O-O 18.dxe3 Ng6 19.exf3 Rf4 20.fxg3 Nc6 21.gxh3 cNe5 22.Be2 Ng4 23.Kd2 a5
24.Ke1 a4 25.Kd2 a3 26.Ke1 axb2 27.a4 bxa1=R 28.a5 Rxb1 29.a6 Rxc1 30.Kd2 Rxd1 31.Kc2 Rxg1
32.a7 Re8

33.a8=B b5 34.Bd5 Kh8 35.Ba2 eRe4 36.dxe4 b4 37.exf4 b3 38.Kd3 b2

39.Kc3 b1=R 40.Kd2 Rb5 41.fxg4 Rh5 42.gxh4 Rxh1 43.Ke3 c5 44.Kd2 c4 45.Ke3 c3 46.Kd3 c2

47.Ke3 c1=R 48.Kd2 cRc5 49.Kd3 cRg5 50.Kd2 Rb1 51. Kd3 bRb5 52.Kd3 bRf5 53.gxh5 Kg7 54.fxg5 Kh8
55.exf5 Kg7 56.Kc3 Kh8 57.Kb2 Kg7 58.Bd3 Kh8 59.dBb1 Kg7 60.fxg6 Kh8 61.gxh7 Kg7 62.gxh6 Kh8

So it’s not an Absolute Turkey.

It’s not a dead position, either:

63.Kc2 Kxh7 64.Kb3 Kg8 65.Kc4 Kf8 66.Kd5 Ke8 67.Ke6 Kf8 68.h7 Ke8 69.h8=Q mate

Bill Smythe