Mate in 6 (Don't start your engines!)

[Chris Tatham]

I'm a pretty weak player but whatever one's playing ability it always lifts the spirits to finish a game well.

Playing the Ipod version of tchessPro at the lofty rating of 1627, still early in the game, very unusually I was already pretty much won (even allowing for my usual gross blunder) but managed to finish off nicely.

[d]1k1r2nr/N1pbq1pp/Qp2pp2/8/3P2P1/4PN2/3B1P1P/R3KB1R w KQ - 0 17

From this position it is mate in 6 - of course any reasonable engine will see it straight away, but for fun and over the board what would you play?

It made my day anyway!

[zullil]

Nice finish. Took me too long, but I did find it. Won't spoil it for others.

[Dann Corbit]

There are 4 different moves that all end up as mate in 6.

[rabbits23]

I think you've done well Chris. I sat there looking at a whole array of
possibilities but nothing I did worked-I'm not a strong player either mind
you. In the end, out of frustration or curiosity, I resorted to Stockfish 6 which
showed me how. Definitely a good one.
Allan

[tpetzke]

Donald Byrne rule: "If you see what looks like a mate, but you're not 100% sure and instead can easily win a lot of material, just take the material and mate later."

So I would probably play Nc8, threatening mate and hit the queen. It is not a Mate in 6, but I guess I would win that.

[Chris Tatham]

Nice finish. Took me too long, but I did find it. Won't spoil it for others.

I think you've done well Chris. I sat there looking at a whole array of
possibilities but nothing I did worked-I'm not a strong player either mind
you. In the end, out of frustration or curiosity, I resorted to Stockfish 6 which
showed me how. Definitely a good one.

Thanks both - I had the advantage that the engine had just resigned so I knew something was close by! - looked to my untrained eye that there must be a mate, so I sat for half an hour looking for it and for once was lucky to find something!

There are 4 different moves that all end up as mate in 6.

So I found later, I was pleased to find just the one! Most engines seem to pick the variation I saw, which is perhaps the nicest

Donald Byrne rule: "If you see what looks like a mate, but you're not 100% sure and instead can easily win a lot of material, just take the material and mate later."

Great advice, my problem though is I tend to give it back quickly with a blunder - concentration isn't what it used to be!

[Dann Corbit]

Nice finish. Took me too long, but I did find it. Won't spoil it for others.

I think you've done well Chris. I sat there looking at a whole array of
possibilities but nothing I did worked-I'm not a strong player either mind
you. In the end, out of frustration or curiosity, I resorted to Stockfish 6 which
showed me how. Definitely a good one.

Thanks both - I had the advantage that the engine had just resigned so I knew something was close by! - looked to my untrained eye that there must be a mate, so I sat for half an hour looking for it and for once was lucky to find something!

There are 4 different moves that all end up as mate in 6.

So I found later, I was pleased to find just the one! Most engines seem to pick the variation I saw, which is perhaps the nicest

Donald Byrne rule: "If you see what looks like a mate, but you're not 100% sure and instead can easily win a lot of material, just take the material and mate later."

Great advice, my problem though is I tend to give it back quickly with a blunder - concentration isn't what it used to be!

Not sure which variation you chose, but the bishop move to b5 was the only one that occurred to me.

The other ones are a lot less obvious.