Talk:Albino (chess)

What?

This article really doesn't make sense, at least to someone who has never heard of it (like me). Can someone who knows what this is explain? JDub90 17:26, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

If you know chess it is relatively straightforward. A chess problem might be a position with the stipulation, "White to play and mate (against any defense) in 3 moves." In a position taken from a real game a mate-in-3 isn't normally too hard to find, and such positions appear in puzzles or quizzes for players trying to sharpen their tactics. Problem composers work to both make finding the solution harder while also having other requirements such as having every piece be either a part of the solution or work to prevent other solutions. The resulting positions tend to be very artificial and would be unlikely to occur in a real game. Also in problems, it's important that there be lines that almost work (called tries). These make solving the problem even harder. After a while, problem composers started adding additional thematic requirements for fun; requirements like the Albino theme as described in this article. Some players like problems, others don't.

In addition to chess puzzles/quizzes and problems there are endgame studies, which are also made-up positions but could occur in practice. Players who don't like problems often like these.

Again, see chess problem for more. --Wfaxon 02:19, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Moves in a soln vs moves on the board

Reading the introduction to this article, I assumed an albino puzzle involved a white pawn actually making each of the four legal moves before concluding the puzzle. However the first example (if I'm reading it correctly - I'm not a chess head so forgive me if I've misread this) is a mate in two where the second move has three options, which suggests that an albino is simply a puzzle where all of the legal moves exist as possible moves in the solution.

Which definition of an albino is correct? Must the pawn actually physically make each legal move in the solution for a puzzle to be considered an albino? Or must each legal move simply exist as a potential move in the solution? If the latter, the intro needs to be modified so that those who don't already understand chess puzzles can get this meaning without having to learn chess notation so as to understand the examples. CastorQuinn (talk) 01:49, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

1st albino example mate in one?

Isn't the first albino example a mate in 1 move situation? If the knight takes the bishop, the king is the only black piece and it must move but can only move to a space the queen, knight, or rook already endangers. The description of the challenge doesn't mention it having to be the pawn. Mdh wikiedit (talk) 05:29, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

• That would be stalemate, not checkmate. 81.140.24.94 (talk) 00:07, 8 June 2021 (UTC)Jack Rudd