Saturday, October 20, 2007

Can't Lose

Tony is famous for saying, "I've never seen a position that I can't lose in one move." This has never sat right with me, so I decided to come up with a position that proves him wrong. In this position, the only legal moves win the game. Sure, it's completely unrealistic... but it proves a point. THIS is a position that can't be lost.


White to move.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

White could of course offer a draw, a legal move that does not win in this position.

Anonymous said...

they're playing under Sofia rules

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahaha

That's a good one!!

Ha hah hahahahahahhaahha....

Too bad white had already been lost for many moves, before that position could actually appear...

Tony was right. Accept it.

But this position did give me a good laugh!!! Thanks! :-)

M

Anonymous said...

What about an en-passant possibility? I love the creativity, my son is now trying to sort out further possibilities.

Anonymous said...

White could forfeit on time deciding which of the two knight moves to make.

-Seth

Chris Irwin said...

Good one, Seth! Hadn't thought of that.

Tony actually said he could lose it, if it was a blitz game, by making an illegal move, say Kh1.

As for the position not being realistic (the material imbalance is ridiculous), you actually can place the rest of white's pieces on the board. I would start with a knight on h2 and a rook on f2. Then the dark squared bishop can be placed on g1 and the queen on h1... and you have a more equal position. White would only be down the exchange.

The only problem from here is how the hell did that pawn on f7 get there? I haven't figured out how to get rid of that part of the position's fantasy-like appearance.

Anonymous said...

Obviously, the only explanation for the pawn on f7 is that the positiona arises from a game of BUGHOUSE! Therefore, white has plenty of non-checkmate move options, depending upon which pieces he holds in hand waiting to be placed (as well as being able to lose on the other board while thinking about his move).

Mike