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© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
This is a
position by Anonymous, the player with the worst win-loss record in history. OK
it is the opening position in a normal chess game. But here, Black must mirror
(duplicate) White's moves. 1 e4 must be answered by 1...e5. With that
restriction upon Black's moves, White can mate in four moves. The mate must be
a regular mate. In other words, a simple check, like 4 Nf6+, is not mate, even
though Black must now move 4...Nf3+. So, such checks are illegal, unless they
are mate.
There are actually three solutions to this problem, involving two different first moves.
Solutions:
Here is one of the solutions: 1 d4 d5 2 Qd3 Qd6 3 Qh3 Qh6 4 Qxc8#. There is one other solution (shown below) starting with 1 d4. And there is a solution that begins with a move other than 1 d4. If you have not already found it, you may want to try to find that solution, which is also shown below.
Here are the other two solutions: 1 d4 d5 2 Qd3 Qdy 3 Qf5 Qf4 4 Qxc8# and 1 c4 c5 2 Qa4 Qa5 3 Qc6 Qc3 4 Qxc8#. These are strangely difficult puzzles, until we deal with our subconscious prejudice against leaving Queens en prise.