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From: kovalsky@spp2.UUCP (Bruce Kovalsky)
Newsgroups: net.chess
Subject: Re: Mate or Stalemate?
Message-ID: <466@spp2.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-Mar-85 12:30:47 EST
Article-I.D.: spp2.466
Posted: Mon Mar 11 12:30:47 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Mar-85 03:37:28 EST
References: <559@astrovax.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: TRW, Redondo Beach  CA
Lines: 42

> Is the following position (taken from Steinhaus, "Mathematical Snapshots")
> a mate or a stalemate?
> 
> 	....kBRK
> 	....PnPP
> 	........
> 	........
> 	........
> 	........
> 	........
> 	........
> 
> Black (Lower Case letters) has just moved his Knight to f7 checking the
> White (Upper Case letters) King. However, White has no legal move at all:
> none of his pieces can move. The book claims that this position is neither
> a mate, nor a stale-mate, nor another form of draw. Usually mate occurs, when
> a King is put in check, and in simple terms, the King moves, but cannot be avoid
> being captured on the following move. But in this case, White has no legal 
> move at all. So the game would stop at this point, before Black could capture
> the White King.
> 
> 	What do you think about this?

The position is a mate. Just because White has no legal moves does not
preclude him from being in checkmate; since he is in check and his king has
no legal moves, then this is defined as checkmate. The above position is
simply termed a "smother mate".

Incidentally, this postion is interesting because it appears at first glance 
that it is an illegal position, since the White Rook could not have gotten
there legally if White were moving in a downward (from above diagram) direction.
But in order for this to be a legal position, White must be moving in an 
upward direction. Therefore, the White rook is on KN8, not KN1, and it could
have gotten there legally. And White's last move had to be either P-R7, P-N7,
P-K7, or a (Q,R,N,B or P) to B7 (where it was captured by the Black Knight,
giving mate). This is a cute position that contains more than meets the eye!
-----
Bruce Kovalsky
..!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!kovalsky

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