Problem 692 should be pruned

The last move is infuriating.

Infuriating is bad. I shortened the problem by one move.

It now ends rather abruptly so it doesn’t really demonstrate the trouble red is in but it didn’t really before and there were tons of ways to win.

Thanks for the feedback.

See also, problem # 1757

That one I did disable. White is just crushing, everything wins.

Not really. 8-3 is easily the strongest and the ensuing play is very interesting. 16-12 wins but not as nicely. It looks like 27-24 could win, but it’s the weakest of the three. Anything else draws or worse.

I might disagree somewhat on philosophy. Over the board play isn’t always clear, and I don’t think tactical problems need to be “no duals allowed.” Real play isn’t like that. One dominant solution with interesting follow-up play is perhaps the requirement, but alternate solutions are fine at times. Remember that the purpose here is not to present elegant problems or studies, but to train for practical play.

One thing that would help is for you to give the FEN for each position to make computer study easier. I get a great deal out of exploring variations with the help of KingsRow.

@bobnewell I agree, one dominant solution is best for these. I have no problem with a few alternates but when almost every move is an alternate path the puzzle can be frustrating.

I like the idea of giving the FEN for each position in a puzzle. I already have that in the opening explorer so it should be pretty easy to transfer that bit of functionality.

And… Done!

Problems have a copy FEN button that takes the position off the board. Let me know if you have any problems with it.