This thread seems to be where the analysis is. I've spent an hour going over this problem, and of course I've found a number of six-move solutions and five-and-a-half move solutions. I found one five move solution, but gasp!, it requires that I leave white's king in check over a turn and thus rather badly violates the rules. It is fairly clever, though, imho:
(I'm doing this without looking at a board, I apologize if I make an error)
e4 Nf6
Be2 Ng4
Kf1 Nxh2+
>
Qe1 Ng4
Rh1 Nxh1#
(White move #4 is, of course, illegal, as white's king is in check).
Here're my contributions to your analysis:
I've considered discovered attacks, but it seems impossible for this to work in less than six moves if you capture on h1/h8 or a1/a8.
I agree that castling will not work (95% certainty).
I have not been able to determine yet if it is black or white that mates -- although there are ten ply to work with if black mates and only nine if white mates, it may be easier to maneuver black's king into a smothered position with his pawn still at e7.
Moving rooks may very well be the key, especially to h2.
It seems obvious that this is some gem of a smothered mate, and the attacking colour surely uses no more than two pieces. It may be that the attacking colour uses only the knight.
Each turn has a white part and a black part, in chess notation. So, the first turn consists of a black move and a white move. The puzzle, then, either has nine individual moves (five white and four black) or ten moves (five white and five black).
Wow. You get a NASA grant and people start paying more attention:) I'm an undergraduate grunt working with Dr. Winglee, and, of course, I'm also an avid slashdot reader. I'm computer science, not space physics, but I may be able to answer questions any of you might have. Also, I've been waiting for an excuse to post something on slashdot.
One quick note on tethers, though (the sky-hook/elevator idea). That's a very promising new development, and a lot of research is going into that. It's totally different from magnetic sails, though, and it gets things off the ground and into earth orbit, and magnetic sails go from a bit away from the earth (I think we have to be outside the bowshock of the earth's magnetosphere). So, tethers could be used to get us off the ground, and a magnetic sail could then take us up, up and away.
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That ends with NxB, not NxR as the problem requires.
-K
I've spent an hour going over this problem, and of course I've found a number of six-move solutions and five-and-a-half move solutions. I found one five move solution, but gasp!, it requires that I leave white's king in check over a turn and thus rather badly violates the rules. It is fairly clever, though, imho:
(I'm doing this without looking at a board, I apologize if I make an error)
(White move #4 is, of course, illegal, as white's king is in check).
Here're my contributions to your analysis:
Well, back to the board. Good luck.
Cheers,
-K
Each turn has a white part and a black part, in chess notation. So, the first turn consists of a black move and a white move. The puzzle, then, either has nine individual moves (five white and four black) or ten moves (five white and five black).
Cheers,
-K
Wow. You get a NASA grant and people start paying more attention :) I'm an undergraduate grunt working with Dr. Winglee, and, of course, I'm also an avid slashdot reader. I'm computer science, not space physics, but I may be able to answer questions any of you might have. Also, I've been waiting for an excuse to post something on slashdot.
One quick note on tethers, though (the sky-hook/elevator idea). That's a very promising new development, and a lot of research is going into that. It's totally different from magnetic sails, though, and it gets things off the ground and into earth orbit, and magnetic sails go from a bit away from the earth (I think we have to be outside the bowshock of the earth's magnetosphere). So, tethers could be used to get us off the ground, and a magnetic sail could then take us up, up and away.