In this puzzle after 5-9 I do 27-23 and my opponent does 9-14. Is that realistic that my opponent would suicide his checker at 9 and give me a king Am I missing something.
That does seem mysterious. Checking it with an engine it looks like with best play from white, red is going to run out of safe moves and hemorrhage material after that. So to avoid that the engine gives away material immediately. In some sense it’s objectively the best move, but practically it’s just awful. This is a common failing of computer engines and there isn’t much I can do about it other than disable puzzles like this one when they show up. Thanks for pointing it out.
Thanks for investigating it