Puzzling Asked on May 19, 2021
What is the most number of consecutive captures that you can have on the same square in a standard game of chess? Assume that black and white alternate in taking turns. Good luck!
Since we are talking about a standard game of chess (although with both players co-operating), we know that there are four pieces that cannot possibly make a capture in the series:
Furthermore, getting the maximum number of pawns involved is tricky. It seems best to group the pawns in quadruplets (e.g. all four pawns on A and B files), and then sacrifice 1 pawn to promote the other 3. We can also feed the useless bishops from above to the lane-switching process, each sacrificed bishop allows 1 pawn pair to promote.
Since we can leave two pairs of pawns unpromoted and attacking the same square, and the useless bishops enable 2 more pawn pairs to promote, we will only have to sacrifice 2 pawns to promote the rest of them.
Therefore, the maximum number of consecutive captures on the same square is
To confirm that this is possible, let's construct an actual game.
To get started, let's make the unavoidable sacrifices. The plan is to do the captures at f5.
1. b4 a5
2. bxa5 c5
3. d4 cxd4
4. g4 g6
5. Bf4 f5
6. Bg3 f4
7. h4 fxg3
8. h5 Bg7
9. h6 e6
10. hxg7 g2
11. e4
In this position we can confirm that now every piece can eventually reach f5 without any further captures, so it's just a matter of doing the tedious arrangement work: (this could definitely be improved, in efficiency and coherence both)
11. - Bb7
12. Rh5 g2
13. Rg5 h5
14. c4 h4
15. c5 h3
16. Nf3 h2
17. Nc3 d3
18. c6 h1=N
19. Nh4 Ng3
20. Kd2 g1=N
21. Ke3 b4
22. f4 b3
23. f5 b2
24. Kf4 Nf3
25. Bh3 d2
26. Qc2 Qf6
27. Nd5 Rh5
28. Ne3 d5
29. c7 d4
30. c8=R+ Kd7
31. Qc5 b1=R
32. Qe5 Rb5
33. Rc5 Ra6
34. a4 Rd6
35. a6 Rd5
36. a7 Nh6
37. g8=B d1=B
38. Bh7 Bc2
39. a8=N Bc8
40. Nc7 Nc6
41. Ne8 Ne7
42. Ng7 d3
43. a5 Nd4
44. a6 d2
45. a7 d1=Q
46. a8=N Qd3
47. Nc7 Kd8
48. Nce8 Bd7
49. Nd6 Qf8
50. Ra5
Now all the ducks are properly lined up:
and it's finally time for the fireworks:
50. - Qxf5+
51. Qxf5 gxf5
52. exf5 Qxf5+
53. gxf5 Bxf5
54. B3xf5 exf5
55. Rxf5 Rdxf5+
56. Nhxf5 Ngxf5
57. Rxf5 Bxf5
58. Ngxf5 Rbxf5+
59. Rxf5 Nhxf5
60. Ndxf5 Nexf5
61. Bxf5 Nxf5
62. Nxf5 Rxf5+
63. Kxf5
As a final note, it's worth noticing that doing black's last capture with a rook is important: trying to do it with a bishop or a knight comes with a nasty surprise: the white King won't be able to complete the final capture, because
Correct answer by Bass on May 19, 2021
Not really sophisticated, but (with promoted pieces) it's possible to do
in the following position:
The sequence of moves can be replayed here.
Answered by Glorfindel on May 19, 2021
Found via Google search: https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/records/recordstxt.htm#Longest%20capturing%20series
Note: This is from an actual game, and as such is not likely to be the longest possible.
Answered by Daniel Mathias on May 19, 2021
@Bass comprehensively beat me to it but my solution is significantly shorter, so I'd hate to let it go to waste... Number of captures is the same.
Answered by Paul Panzer on May 19, 2021
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