A Maze of Moves –
Can You Find the Winning Path?
A puzzle packed with possibilities for White and full of clever Black defenses.
Even the winning move leads to quite a branching variation.
We suspect some solvers might get frustrated by the complexity — but if you manage to find the solution: wow, you’re good at this.
And after the key move, we found seven or eight different mates available on the second move!
📖Read more about this Art-Puzzle
Suggestion: Try solving it yourself first
Solved it yet?
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Trying to solve a puzzle like this by pure trial and error can be exhausting.
So instead, let’s focus on the clues hidden inside the composition.
💡
What could help us “get into the composer’s mind” and reach the winning move more quickly?
Let’s begin:
Already in the starting position, moving the ♝ allows the ♕ to travel beautifully along the entire rank and deliver mate on h1.
That makes it smart to ask: did the composer also prepare a similar vertical route?
🕵️♂️
Yes — that seems very plausible: moving the ♟ on d5 would allow the ♕ to use a vertical path to a8 on its way to mate.
This already gives us a strong hint as to which White piece needs to move first — the ♘ on d4.
🗝️
But where should it go? There are five possible squares.
🤔
To check them efficiently, it’s wise to pick a strong default Black defense — a “test move” against which we can check if there’s a prepared mate.
How about ♟exf6? (It opens an escape route for the ♚ to f5, and there’s no pre-set mate responding to that.)
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When a Black piece moves, we should examine not only what it does in its new square, but also what tasks it no longer fulfills.
Notice that after our chosen test move, the defense of d6 is abandoned.
That square could be an excellent destination for the ♘, threatening the ♚ while also closing off f5 again.
🔍
Now all that remains is to choose between ♘f5 or ♘b5.
One of them isn’t even a near-solution (since after it, Black has more than one way to defend against mate on the second move — did you spot it?), while the other is in fact the winning key move.
🤓
From here, the puzzle continues with several nice one-move mates.
💎We especially liked:
At first, we felt a bit disappointed — there are none of the usual “flashy” themes here:
no mate-despite-check, no daring ♕ sacrifice, no special promotion of a White piece, no en passant capture, no castling, and not even a pin being exploited. 🤔
But what is here?
An impressive precision: eight different mates on the second move (including the threat). White creates only one threat with the key move, and for each of Black’s seven defensive tries, there is exactly one mating reply — each unique and elegant in its own way.
How did you feel about this puzzle? Was it hard to solve? Did you enjoy it?
Tell us in the comments — we’d really love to know!
(We’re especially curious, because — believe it or not — we have another puzzle by the same composer 💙 with even more than eight branches. Does quantity here become a form of quality?)
Annoying! Yes, it’s definitely annoying! A simply exhausting puzzle
Hi Wilson,
Thank you for sharing your reaction so candidly. ♟️
We know that some compositions here can be demanding to the point of feeling exhausting — and that response is completely valid. What one solver experiences as a satisfying struggle, another may experience as irritation, especially when the path forward feels elusive.
We’re genuinely interested in understanding that difference better. If you’re willing to share, we’d love to know what exactly made this puzzle frustrating for you — and just as importantly, which kinds of puzzles on the site have appealed to you more, if any. Your perspective could help us better understand how different solvers engage with these works.
Either way, we appreciate you taking the time to engage with the puzzle and to voice your experience honestly.
– The ChessAPit Team