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White to move and mate in... uhh... how did we get here? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by starman2112@sh.itjust.works to c/anarchychess@sopuli.xyz
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[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

I've often wondered if it's always possible to tell whether any arbitrary boardstate is possible, and I came up with a few easy ways to tell how the board can't be legal without verifying that no set of moves can lead to it. Can you spot every illegality?

[-] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  • White has pawns on the first rank (a1 & b1).
  • White has an unpromoted pawn on the eighth rank (h8).
  • Black has an unpromoted pawn on the first rank (h1).
  • White has three bishops (c1, f1, & d4) while no pawns have promoted.
  • Black has two dark-squared bishops (h4 & f8) while no pawns have promoted.
  • The black and white kings are touching each other.
  • The black king is being attacked but it's white to play.
[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have since updated it to include one more illegality. Hint, the b pawn is no longer on the first rank.

Side note, I love that I can update the link in my post here, I spotted that last illegality after I initially posted and was incredibly disappointed in myself for forgetting it at first

[-] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Is it the rook on a2? I'm not sure if that counts as its own illegality since we have no idea by what wizardry the pawn got on a1.

also Kbin doesn't update the link, so I had to go to sopuli.xyz to see the updated image :D

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

That's it! Now that I think of it, keeping White's a pawn at a2, moving Black's b pawn to b8, and moving the a1 rook to the middle of the board would probably make for a more illegal board, but I've already changed it once

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this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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