Tip: Try to find the move Black would play now — if it were Black’s turn.
The puzzle presented here is meant as a preparation for
a deeper understanding of the next artistic-problem (which we consider to be one of Yerushalmi’s most remarkable works).
Solve this one as a regular mate-in-two problem.
If you are an experienced solver, you may choose to skip ahead to the main composition — but this puzzle can also stand on its own, and you may still discover some nice content within it.
📖Read more about this Art-Puzzle
Suggestion: Try solving it yourself first
Solved it yet?
Read more
A smart first look at this puzzle shows us something important:
🔍If it were Black’s move right now, he would have only one recommended move — ♝ to d8. Any other move would immediately allow White to deliver checkmate.
➡️This discovery makes it clear that we are facing an almost-ready zugzwang.
All White needs to do is block the line from d8 to f6 with the ♖, and that becomes the winning move. Puzzle solved!
Did you think about it the same way? 🤓 (Share with us in the comments)
*
After this winning move, Black would happily “skip a turn” (as always in zugzwang problems), but since that’s impossible, he must move — whether with the ♜, the ♞, or the ♝ — and in every case White has a checkmate reply.
💡We especially liked:
There are definitely some impressive ideas here that we really enjoyed ✨.
But since you’re probably about to move on to the next challenge 🚀, we won’t spoil it by giving away a hint… 🤫