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Bad, even very bad chess moves are nothing out of the ordinary. Every single player will have had their fair share of stupid blunders like hanging a queen in an otherwise completely winning position. But it is pretty rare to see examples of the worst possible type of blunder:

Lets say that a chess move is (truly) atrocious if

  • it forces the opponent to give checkmate the following move and
  • every other legal move from the same position would give checkmate instead.

For example:

First example position, FEN: K1k1BR2/P1p1P3/2q5/8/1Q6/8/8/8

In this position, White has exactly two legal moves - Bxc6# (which is checkmate) and Qb7+???, which forces Black to respond with Qxb7#, checkmating White. So, the second option would be an example of a (truly) atrocious move.

Now, in this instance, there was only a single alternative move that White could have played. But clearly, a (truly) atrocious move grows all the more impressive the larger its set of alternatives is. So this is your challenge:

Try to find a legal chess position that admits a (truly) atrocious move with the most alternatives!

To kick things off, here is my (nonoptimal) benchmark of a (truly) atrocious move with 21 alternatives (White to move):

Second example, FEN: 2k3BR/2P4P/1PPP4/5R2/8/pp4pB/1p4P1/bK6

Can you beat that? I'm looking forward to your attempts :^)

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    $\begingroup$ In case this is of use for someone: FEN (first position): K1k1BR2/P1p1P3/2q5/8/1Q6/8/8/8 w - - 0 1 FEN (second position): 2k3BR/2P4P/1PPP4/5R2/8/pp4pB/1p4P1/bK6 w - - 0 1 $\endgroup$ Commented 3 hours ago

1 Answer 1

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A slight variation of the given position with 23 moves that should still be legally reachable: image of board

FEN: B1k3BR/2P4P/1PPP4/5R2/8/2pp2pB/1p1p2P1/brbK4 w - - 0 1


32 winning moves, not reachable from the starting position: image of board

FEN: QQQQQB2/QnnnQP1p/QnknQP1P/QnnnQP2/QQQQQP2/PPPPPP1p/3PpP1P/4BbBK w - - 0 1


27 winning moves, not reachable from the starting position: image of board

FEN: k2BQBQB/2QQBQBQ/1Q1QQBQB/BQQ1QQB1/QBQQ1QPB/BQBPB1Bp/QBPBpB1B/BQB1BbBK w - - 0 1

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  • $\begingroup$ $+1 \ $ Nice answer. It would be even better if the position could be achieved in a legal Chess game. $\endgroup$ Commented 2 hours ago
  • $\begingroup$ @Will.Octagon.Gibson It would be much better, especially because that's an explicit requirement.... $\endgroup$ Commented 31 mins ago
  • $\begingroup$ @noedne should I delete the two unreachable solutions? $\endgroup$ Commented 24 mins ago

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