The Retrograde Analysis Corner
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For each piece, which is the shortest proof game without duals, in which this piece mates? Some additional conditions may be considered, e.g. for a original piece, for a promoted piece, etc.
Many new records in this genre originate in mail discussions about
"shortest mates in proof games" on the Retro Mailing List in May 1996
and October 2002. Some of the compositions have been improved in the
meantime, but they are nevertheless
interesting originals.
Many thanks to Norbert Geissler, who collected and documented the
1996 results, and Christoph Fieberg, who
compiled the current list.
The compositions are ranked according to a) less number of moves,
b) less number of capturing moves, and c) publication date. If you are
aware of better results, or earlier results with the same number of
moves,
please
contribute!
Note: The systematic of this overview and Norbert's work is quite different. Currently, Norbert's work covers also other types of records.
| Type 1: Mate by: | |||||||||
| Ta1 | Nb1 | Bc1 | Qd1 | --- | Bf1 | Ng1 | Rh1 | ||
| a2 | b2 | c2 | d2 | e2 | f2 | g2 | h2 | ||
| Type 2: Mate by: | promoted to: | ||||||||
| a2 | b2 | c2 | d2 | e2 | f2 | g2 | h2 | Q | |
| a2 | b2 | c2 | d2 | e2 | f2 | g2 | h2 | R | |
| a2 | b2 | c2 | d2 | e2 | f2 | g2 | h2 | B | |
| a2 | b2 | c2 | d2 | e2 | f2 | g2 | h2 | N | |
| Type 3: Mate by: | discovered by: | ||||||||
| Ra1 | --- | Bc1 | Qd1 | --- | Bf1 | --- | Rh1 | Ke1 | |
| Type 4: Mate by en passant and castling: | |||||||||
| a2 | b2 | c2 | d2 | e2 | f2 | g2 | h2 | 0-0 | 0-0-0 |
| Type 1: Mate by: | ||||||||||||||
| Ta8 | Nb8 | Bc8 | Qd8 | --- | Bf8 | Ng8 | Rh8 | |||||||
| a7 | b7 | c7 | d7 | e7 | f7 | g7 | h7 | |||||||
| Type 2: Mate by: | promoted to: | |||||||||||||
| a7 | b7 | c7 | d7 | e7 | f7 | g7 | h7 | Q | ||||||
| a7 | b7 | c7 | d7 | e7 | f7 | g7 | h7 | R | ||||||
| a7 | b7 | c7 | d7 | e7 | f7 | g7 | h7 | B | ||||||
| a7 | b7 | c7 | d7 | e7 | f7 | g7 | h7 | N | ||||||
| Type 3: Mate by: | discovered by: | |||||||||||||
| Ra8 | --- | Bc8 | Qd8 | --- | Bf8 | --- | Rh8 | Ke8 | ||||||
| Type 4: Mate by en passant and castling: | ||||||||||||||
| a7 | b7 | c7 | d7 | e7 | f7 | g7 | h7 | 0-0 | 0-0-0 | |||||
The problems are "numbered" as follows:
Mxy Type 1: Mate by piece xy PxyZ Type 2: Mate by Pawn xy promoted to Z DxyZ Type 3: Mate by piece xy discovered by piece mn Exy Type 4: Mate by Pawn xy capturing e.p. Cxymn Type 4: Mate by 0-0 or 0-0-0, xy = King, mn = Rook
[-nr] appended to one of the "numbers" above: A problem which is an original, but not a record (any more).
xy and mn are the coordinates of the pieces in the starting position.