Cozio's Mate Puzzle Two: White to move, Queen mate in two
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Cozio's mate is named after the Italian chess theorist Carlo Cozio. He published this particular checkmate pattern as a result of a positional study in 1766. Cozio also has an obscure opening defense named after him - Cozio's Defense is an unpopular (and self-constraining) variant of defending the Ruy Lopez.
Skeletal example below. Note that black's friendly pieces can be anything other than an unpinned knight to satisfy this particular checkmate pattern.
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Having learned about the function and mechanism of Cozio's Mate, try to apply those principles to this more complex position...
Cozio's Mate Puzzle Two: White to move, Queen mate in three
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Further instruction
Chess
Sources
Solutions to puzzles
Solution to Cozio's Mate Puzzle 1
| Move | White | Black | Annotation |
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| 1 | Qh6+ | Kg3 | ♕ two spaces away controls the nearest diagonal square, pushing ♚ backwards |
| 2 | Qh2# | 1-0 | The ♛ and ♟ block escape. These could have been any black pieces except an unpinned knight |
Solution to Cozio's Mate Puzzle 2
| Move | White | Black | Annotation |
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| 1 | | | |
| 1 | RxN! | RxR | ♖ removes defender of h6! Black doesn't have any other immediate response to avoid losing 8 points of material without compensation |
| 2 | Qh6+ | Kg3 | Without defender, pattern quickly emerges |
| 3 | Qh2# | 1-0 | The ♝ and ♟ block escape. These could have been any black pieces except an unpinned knight |
IronNoder 2018: 07/30