Problem 38310

[boromir]

Problem 38310 has an alternative solution (1.Nd6) which is technically a mate in 8 as the computer can sacrifice it's queen to delay mate, while any human move, such as 1...a5 would make it a mate in 6 (as opposed to the solution of mate in 4). Apart from that, the position is just so crushing (White is already up a piece and fritz has found at least 10 different ways of forcing mate within a minute) that any sensible move wins easily.

The 'solution' (the mate in 4) is really nice though so it would be a pity to lose the problem. Giving black another piece might be a way of improving the problem. A black knight on h4 (the best I could come up with) would restore material equality and only leave 2 solutions, the original mate in 4, as well as 1.Bc6, which could be marked as 'good but not the best'. I also don't think this would interfere with the most common mistake, which is 1.Nb6.

[richard]

Hi boromir,

Yup, this one is pretty bad.  The old generator was designed to reject this, but there was a bug that allowed some problems to slip through (certain combinations of multiple length mates and high material winning lines trigger this problem).  I think I've fixed this with the new generator, which is about 30% through verifying the current set.

Regards,
Richard.