Letter #29 -  2008

Sub:    Eight different ways to mate in two moves
Date:   08/21/2008 10:13:24 PM EDT
From:  Mohammed Azlan Bin Mohamed Iqbal
To:      service@chess-poster.com

Hello,

With reference to your, “Did you know?” section:

http://www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/did_you_know.htm

item 42: “From the starting position, there are eight different ways to mate in two moves and 355 different ways to mate in three moves.”

Could you explain exactly what you mean here or how you arrived at these values? It seems to me that there are probably more than 8 and 355 different ways to mate, respectively.

I’m asking because I’ve been looking for a way to demonstrate these facts mathematically.

Thank you.

Dear viewer,

The following diagrams show the eight possible ways of mating in two:

[ 1 ]

White moves first: 1. f3 e6 2. g4 Qh4#

[ 2 ]

White moves first: 1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4#

[ 3 ]

White moves first: 1. f4 e6 2. g4 Qh4#

[ 4 ]

White moves first: 1. f4 e5 2. g4 Qh4#

[ 5 ]

Black moves first: 1. f6 e3 2. g5 Qh5#

[ 6 ]

Black moves first: 1. f6 e4 2. g5 Qh5#

[ 7 ]

Black moves first: 1. f5 e3 2. g5 Qh5#

[ 8 ]

Black moves first: 1. f5 e4 2. g5 Qh5#

To show the 355 different ways to mate in three moves is beyond our scope and hopefully you or any other viewer can send us the solutions in a near future.

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