Find a Checkmate in 17 Moves

Use a chess engine to find a long sequence of white chess moves leading to checkmate

The Wolfram Chess paclet comes with the very strong Arasan chess engine, which can be used as an opponent to play against and also for the analysis of chess positions. Here EngineEvaluate is used to find a long sequence of white chess moves leading to checkmate in position #213 of Win at Chess by Fred Reinfeld.

Install the Wolfram Chess paclet:

In[1]:=

PacletInstall["Wolfram/Chess"];

Load the paclet:

In[2]:=

Needs["Wolfram`Chess`"];

Here is the FEN (Forsyth–Edwards Notation) corresponding to Win at Chess position #213:

In[3]:=

fen1="3r1r1k/1b4pp/ppn1p3/4Pp1R/Pn5P/3P4/4QP2/1qB1NKR1 w - - 0 0";

Display the corresponding board:

In[4]:=

Chessboard[fen1]["Graphics","SquareColors"{LightCyan,Darker@Cyan},ImageSize360]

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Setting "MaxDepth"  27 in EngineEvaluate finds the checkmate in 18 white moves and a total of 35 moves:

In[5]:=

eval=EngineEvaluate[fen1,"MaxDepth"27]

Out[5]=

Best moveh5h7,Ponderh8h7,Depth27,Score∞,Time

29048

,Line{h5h7,h8h7,e2h5,h7g8,g1g7,g8g7,c1h6,g7h7,h6g5,h7g7,h5h6,g7f7,h6f6,f7g8,f6g6,g8h8,g5f6,f8f6,e5f6,b1e1,f1e1,b4c2,e1d2,d8d3,d2c1,d3d7,g6e8,h8h7,e8d7,c6e7,d7e7,h7g6,e7g7,g6h5,g7g5},DistanceToMate18

Define a function to give the list of generated fens from a starting fen and a move sequence:

In[6]:=

FensCorrespondingToAMoveSequence[f_,ms_]:=Module[{b=Wolfram`Chess`MLE`ChessBoard`NewBoard[f]},b@Wolfram`Chess`MLE`ChessBoard`playMoves[b@Wolfram`Chess`MLE`ChessBoard`convertMoves[ms,"SAN","UCI"]]]

This generates the sequence of fens for the moves leading to checkmate:

In[7]:=

Short[fens=FensCorrespondingToAMoveSequence[fen1,eval["Line"]],5]

Out[7]//Short=

{3r1r1k/1b4pp/ppn1p3/4Pp1R/Pn5P/3P4/4QP2/1qB1NKR1 w - - 0 0,3r1r1k/1b4pR/ppn1p3/4Pp2/Pn5P/3P4/4QP2/1qB1NKR1 b - - 0 0,3r1r2/1b4pk/ppn1p3/4Pp2/Pn5P/3P4/4QP2/1qB1NKR1 w - - 0 1,31,8/1b4Q1/pp2pP2/5p1k/P6P/8/2n2P2/2K5 w - - 3 17,8/1b6/pp2pP2/5pQk/P6P/8/2n2P2/2K5 b - - 4 17}

This displays the position with checkmate:

In[8]:=

Chessboard[Last@fens]["Graphics","SquareColors"{LightCyan,Darker@Cyan},ImageSize360]

Out[8]=

Visualize the sequence of moves as an animation:

In[9]:=

DynamicModulefens=

,Animate[Wolfram`Chess`Chessboard[fens〚i〛]["Graphics","SquareColors"{LightCyan,Darker@Cyan},ImageSize360],{i,1,Length@fens,1},AnimationRate2,InitializationNeeds["Wolfram`Chess`"]]

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Contributed by: Jay Warendorff

Wolfram Language Example Repository

Find a Checkmate in 17 Moves

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