Mate in 290 moves

  
Problem

Mate in 290 moves!


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Benjamin Block    (2008-04-20 18:01:42)
Mate in 290 moves!

White to mate in 290 moves. ChessPosition (see diagram)
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
a b c d e f g h




Ilmars Cirulis    (2008-04-21 14:08:09)
Re

First must be 1.Rd1+ Bd4 2.c4+ Kd6 3.Rxg1 Bg7 4.Rd1+ Bd4, imo.

It looks like we must force all black pawns move to first line (to be eaten) and then get to queen our 'a' pawn, at first. But we have black bishop jumping from a8 to b7 and back..

Thinking...
Any idea?


Kieran Child    (2008-05-14 22:35:48)
answer

What Ilmars said, then to prevent the black bishop on A8 wandering, you go Rd3 and k....f1 where it triangulates then k...b6 where black has to push a pawn. If black ever moves the b pawn you can eat it, then b4 and bc# or rxd4# wins.


Normajean Yates    (2008-08-12 06:20:59)
nice...

nice solution!

The thing about mate-in-290 and such is that there is nothing to be scared off. The composer couldn't have calculated it out; so you have to find the key idea or ideas. Modern update: Or else it is clearly a tablebase output or a combination of above and tablebase. One takes the same approach then, with obvious additions...