Letter #25 -  2005

Sub:    Unable to mate in one
Date:   8/08/2005 1:17:53 AM MDT
From:  Salvador
To:      service@chess-poster.com

Hello,

First, thank you for the great Chess page that you have, it is helping me a lot in my continuous quest for learning. I have been a Chess fan for about 35 years and I still believe I'm an amateur, but what it really matters to me is to be able to review games and keep on learning.

My question is the following: in the Chess problems page, “Mate in one”, on the first problem (1 of 10), if I apply the in passant maneuver and check the black King, he can flee to the a7 square taking the white Pawn and avoiding being mated in one move.

Am I right? I do not see the way of making a mate in one move.

Thank you for your attention and for keeping the Chess spirit alive.

Best regards,
Salvador.

Dear viewer,

You've got a little bit wrong the concept of the “in passant” maneuver. A Pawn positioned in the 5th rank can only perform the in passant movement. In this example the Pawn on a5 can make it, but the Pawn on a6 cannot do it since it's illegal.

In the diagram below, which is a copy of the mate in one problem you were referring to, black previous move was Pawn b7 to b5 (black arrow). Thus, the a5 white Pawn makes the in passant move (red arrow) taking the black Pawn and checkmating the black King because he has no safe place to go or any other means of blocking the attack.

More information about the in passant maneuver can be found in the Chesmayne Pawn history at: http://www.chess-poster.com/english/history/the_pawn.htm

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