Alberto wrote on 06/11/21 at 18:49:59:

Alberto, you will go far.

Alberto wrote on 06/08/21 at 12:22:41:


Sorry Alberto, when you said newbie I thought you meant new to the site not new to chess. As a newbie puzzles are not the best starting point to improve your chess, especially mate in ### puzzles, which tend to be quite esoteric and artificial. BTW   do you see the mate after 1. Qa2 (Queen to A2) Nc8 (Knight to C8). 

Start with the fundamentals like mastering the basic checkmates (Queen vs King; 2 Rooks vs King; Rook vs King; 2 Bishops vs King and finally Bishop & Knight vs King) and work your way up from there. As you improve they are plenty experts here to guide you.   

So happy Alberto is here! Somebody finally showed up who may be more of a Noob than me. No offense, Alberto. I have received a HUGE amount of help here since I joined in March, 2020. In the wake of COVID, online resources are a godsend. Jeff Coakley's, "Winning Chess Strategy for Kids" or the Susan Polgar beginner book series will put you on the right path if you want it.

Alberto wrote on 06/09/21 at 15:03:26:

He was using letters for colums and numbers for rows. That's already the standard notation on this site, and in most of the chess world. 

One of your suggestions was:
If you move the white queen to A2 [...]

While TopNotch wrote:
Qa2

I'm sure you see the connection if you think about it.

It's not hard when you get the hang of it. For explanations of this "algebraic notation", see:

https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/E012018 (scroll to Appendix C. Algebraic notation)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_notation_(chess)

(And yes, after this continuing spoiler galore I have now officially given up on forgetting the solution. If I ever come across this problem again, I hope I have forgotten the position instead.)

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 06/08/21 at 13:33:01:


Thanks an ordinary chess player! I just looked at it. Awesome.
unfortunately, it does not give me the solution only the possible moves although they don't conclude in a checkmate. in YACPDB notation, moves that end in exclamation (!) end without checkmate. 


white pieces start moving first. the columns are letters, and the rows are numbers. 

1 YACPDB proposal: if you move the white queen to B8, the black king moves to C6. (there's no solution)

2 YACPDB proposal: if you move the white queen to B3, the black knight move to B5 (there's no solution)

3 YACPDB proposal: if you move the white queen to A2, the black king moves to A8, killing the white knight in the process. (there's no solution)

Sorry, i'm not allowed to post links, neither quote them.

cathexis wrote on 06/09/21 at 12:47:34:


Thanks, cathexis. Believe me I tried that methodical way but no way. I know there's a solution of course, but i didn't manage to find it. I will read the article.


TopNotch wrote on 06/08/21 at 20:11:49:


Sorry, I don't understand what Qa2 means. I'm a newbie. Could you use the letters for columns and the numbers for the rows notation please?

@Alberto,

Whenever I've gotten stuck on a checkmate puzzle it is invariably because I either never even considered the answer as a candidate move or didn't properly work through the variations after the 1st move. Mostly, it is the former. Its always great to see the answer in a intuitive "flash", but methodical is ok too. Considering all possible moves one by one. This kind of getting stuck also happens a lot more often when doing puzzles online as you get this kind of tunnel vision and dopamine click, click, click response. Books are better for learning puzzle solving. AOC's article suggestion is a must read if its ideas are new to you.

Hope this helps,

Cathexis

Suggestion

Better might be as one sees on chess puzzle FB pages. 

'Post a if you have worked out the answer. Please don't post the answer and spoil the fun!'

Then OP comes back in a week and posts the answer.

Not having a go at TN, not at all. It's instinctive to post the answer. Chessers are competitive and we want to show we have the answer!  I have done exactly the same on FB, oops, then deleted when asked to do the above.

Stigma, what did you have in mind for "hidden text"? I came up with a way combining the Highlight button and the "yellow" text color button, but maybe you know a better way....

Solution: 1.Qa2

Qa2, took me 5mins.

Hi guys, newbie here.

I'm having a hard time trying to checkmate the black king in two moves, could you help me?



kind regards