Today, Flora accuses Nibs of subterfuge in
Chess Master
And I'm going to put on my nerd hat here for a while, because the funny thing about this one is that Flora might just be right. If you look closely there's actually something quite odd about this particular chessboard.
Assumptions:
1: Flora is playing white and Nibs black (i.e. Flora is losing as the sketch suggests).
2: Since Nibs is smugly holding Flora's queen, Nibs has just moved (and taken said queen) and it is now Flora's move.
3: The board is currently set up as follows (with Nibs having cutely substituted in an acorn as her King):
Note that the identity of the two somewhat ambiguous non-pawn non-rook black pieces (which I have noted here as one knight and one bishop) doesn't actually end up making a difference.
With those assumptions, it turns out that this is actually an illegal position, in the sense that it can't be reached by any legal sequence of moves. The problem is basically that Flora's king has to have already been in check at the start of Nibs' turn.
Currently, the white king is under check from both the black queen on c1 and the black rook on a2. Since Nibs can of course only move one piece per turn, at least one of these two pieces had to have already been in its current position at the start of her turn. If the queen was already in position, there is no way it could not have been giving check. If the rook was already in position, the only way it could have not been giving check is if either the queen or knight had started the turn on b2 and were blocking it - however, under either of those cases, then the queen would still have been giving check.
Either way, Nibs' turn has to have started (and thus, Flora's turn ended) with Flora's king in check. This is illegal, because in chess one is not *allowed* to place or leave one's king in check. Either Flora failed to move her king out of check on her turn (which is illegal), or she actually moved her king *into* check on her turn (also illegal), or Nibs made some sort of illegal move on *her* turn, such as moving two pieces. (And, of course, if it's actually Nibs' turn instead, the position is still illegal because Flora again illegally left her king in check.)
Amusingly enough, despite the desperate situation of Flora's king, white is actually not quite checkmated yet. The positions of the black rooks and queen means that the white king cannot escape check by simply fleeing, but the black queen herself is not protected. As such, the only legal move for white in this case is:
1. Kxc1
However, this position *is* still an almost immediate loss for white. White's king is now trapped on the first rank by the rook on a2, so to secure the victory all black has to do is protect that rook against the threat of Kb1, which is done by:
1... Nc3 (if the piece on a4 is actually a bishop, the move is instead ... Bb3)
Now white's fate is sealed, as the king cannot escape the first rank and cannot threaten the piece holding it there. The conclusion is straightforward:
2. Kd1 Bd4 (clearing the way; if the piece on g1 is a knight then instead ... Nh3)
3. Ke1 Rg1 mate
This position is still quickly lost for white even if you delete one of the black rooks *and* either the knight or bishop; black simply has far too large of an advantage. In fact, you can delete all of the black pieces except one rook and it's still a win for black (king and rook endgame) - the only real challenge is to avoid letting white maneuver into a stalemate and sneak out a draw.