An easy win... for engines

[Pio]

I would say f1-g2

[zullil]

White clearly can do many checks and hopefully later there is going to be mate.

Qh1+ or Qd1-f3+ may be my first move

It's mate-in-7. I considered the same first moves you did. Both are wrong.

wrong because it is longer mate or because they do not win?

I guess I am wrong, since Qd1f3 leads to a minimal mate. I don't think Qh1 does.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

White clearly can do many checks and hopefully later there is going to be mate.

Qh1+ or Qd1-f3+ may be my first move

It's mate-in-7. I considered the same first moves you did. Both are wrong.

wrong because it is longer mate or because they do not win?

I guess I am wrong, since Qd1f3 leads to a minimal mate. I don't think Qh1 does.

And how long is the minimal mate after Qdf3 Qf3 Qf3 Qgd5 Qa2 Kb7 Qfd5 Qd5 Qd5, 5 moves up to here, how much long until mate?

[zullil]

White clearly can do many checks and hopefully later there is going to be mate.

Qh1+ or Qd1-f3+ may be my first move

It's mate-in-7. I considered the same first moves you did. Both are wrong.

wrong because it is longer mate or because they do not win?

I guess I am wrong, since Qd1f3 leads to a minimal mate. I don't think Qh1 does.

And how long is the minimal mate after Qdf3 Qf3 Qf3 Qgd5 Qa2 Kb7 Qfd5 Qd5 Qd5, 5 moves up to here, how much long until mate?

After Black's reply, mate-in-4. But after Kb7, play Qb4+

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

White clearly can do many checks and hopefully later there is going to be mate.

Qh1+ or Qd1-f3+ may be my first move

It's mate-in-7. I considered the same first moves you did. Both are wrong.

wrong because it is longer mate or because they do not win?

I guess I am wrong, since Qd1f3 leads to a minimal mate. I don't think Qh1 does.

And how long is the minimal mate after Qdf3 Qf3 Qf3 Qgd5 Qa2 Kb7 Qfd5 Qd5 Qd5, 5 moves up to here, how much long until mate?

After Black's reply, mate-in-4. But after Kb7, play Qb4+

So if it is indeed the shortest mate, why did you make me look for strange solutions like Qb8, by stating that Qf3 was not good?

I thought you had checked everything with SF.

[F.Huber]

I thought you had checked everything with SF.

Why not checking it with a professional mate solver?

FEN: kqqqqqq1/8/8/8/8/5Q2/8/KQQ1QQQ1 b - - 1 1

ChestUCI Ver.5.2:
FEN: kqqqqqq1/8/8/8/8/8/8/KQQQQQQ1 w - - (7+7)
Stellungs-Analyse: C0/R0/K1/P6/X85 W:6/85
Suche nach Matt in 10 ... (Hash=256MB)
7 00:07 1.368.386 277.563 +M7 1.Qdf3+
7 00:09 1.940.394 275.780 +M7 1.Qxb8+
Suche abgeschlossen ... (Zeit=9.47s)
Matt in 7 gefunden ! (2 Lösungen in 00:09)
7/7 00:09 2.701.043 285.251 +M7 1.Qxb8+ Kxb8 2.Qxc8+ Qxc8 3.Qb6+ Qb7 4.Qxe8+ Qxe8 5.Qdd6+ Kc8 6.Qxb7+ Kxb7 7.Qfa6+
7/7 00:09 2.701.043 285.251 +M7 1.Qdf3+ Qgd5 2.Qa2+ Qa3 3.Qcxa3+ Qa4 4.Qxa4+ Q8a5 5.Qexa5+ Qa6 6.Qfxa6+ Qa7 7.Qg8+
Best move: Qdf3, Value: +Mate in 7, Depth: 7/7, Time: 00:09,589, 2.701.043 Nodes, 285.251 N/sec

Franz

[zullil]

why did you make me look for strange solutions like Qb8, by stating that Qf3 was not good?

I thought you had checked everything with SF.

How many times did you make me search for mates that didn't even exist?

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

I thought you had checked everything with SF.

Why not checking it with a professional mate solver?

FEN: kqqqqqq1/8/8/8/8/5Q2/8/KQQ1QQQ1 b - - 1 1

ChestUCI Ver.5.2:
FEN: kqqqqqq1/8/8/8/8/8/8/KQQQQQQ1 w - - (7+7)
Stellungs-Analyse: C0/R0/K1/P6/X85 W:6/85
Suche nach Matt in 10 ... (Hash=256MB)
7 00:07 1.368.386 277.563 +M7 1.Qdf3+
7 00:09 1.940.394 275.780 +M7 1.Qxb8+
Suche abgeschlossen ... (Zeit=9.47s)
Matt in 7 gefunden ! (2 Lösungen in 00:09)
7/7 00:09 2.701.043 285.251 +M7 1.Qxb8+ Kxb8 2.Qxc8+ Qxc8 3.Qb6+ Qb7 4.Qxe8+ Qxe8 5.Qdd6+ Kc8 6.Qxb7+ Kxb7 7.Qfa6+
7/7 00:09 2.701.043 285.251 +M7 1.Qdf3+ Qgd5 2.Qa2+ Qa3 3.Qcxa3+ Qa4 4.Qxa4+ Q8a5 5.Qexa5+ Qa6 6.Qfxa6+ Qa7 7.Qg8+
Best move: Qdf3, Value: +Mate in 7, Depth: 7/7, Time: 00:09,589, 2.701.043 Nodes, 285.251 N/sec

Franz

Is that you, Franz?

The same Franz I met online in a wonderful day some 14 years ago?

Thanks for the output.
I did not try an engine, as Stefano told us not to use one.

So Qb8 is not that bad after all.

Is ChestUCI perfect? I never used it, but maybe I should one day...

[bob]

I tried two trains of action, but both are too complicated to work through right now. I started by trying Qh8+ since that square is not under attack but instead of Ka8 Qb7 seems to start to build a hole for the king that can't be broken in to without massive trades.

I then tried one other move but it too is complicated. Qdf3+. Of course the queen is hanging but it is also defended. This looks more promising,
with Qdf3+, Qxf3, Qxf3+ and again the Qb7 interposition. But expanding on this idea led to a headache. My analysis then went Qxc8+ and with the Qb7 pinned, black has to retake with the only queen attacking that square. I then tried Qa5+ but all the queens made that simply to complicated to think about further. I'll take your word it is a mate. Crafty is currently in the middle of a major evaluation revision, so I didn't try it as it promptly segfaulted. But that will be fixed eventually (I am now working on analyzing attacks by pieces in the evaluation, and the position apparently blows something I have not yet considered...).

In any case, cute position, one that can make a human's head explode with all the queens attacking almost every square on the board. The "theme" seems to be to trade the right queens to leave squares that offer safe queen checks, but it sure looks complicated to pull this off.

[noctiferus]

I went for Qh1, as Uri did.
Checking it with Houdini4 tact with mate search 20 , it is a mate in 8, while the best are Qdf3+, together with Qxb8+, both in 7 moves.