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Fools Mate

◆◆ · By woozy · Published 2023-04-11T23:07:28.246Z

Meta Prompt
The answer to the meta is an eight letter phrase
Hey! MATE is an anagram of META.
So I'm tired of those themers obliquely refer to words, take the first letter and spell things out metas. So this isn't one of those.
Anyway I love the idea of chess. I'm pretty damned bad at it. Oh, I'm better than people who don't play but among people who claim they play... Anyway, the fools mate. I've never fallen for it. But considering... it's unlikely anyone ever has.
Checking for previous play data...

Leaderboard (updated hourly)

  • benchen71 solved 2023-04-12T00:15:54.353Z
  • Account solved 2023-04-12T15:21:55.311Z
  • Madhatter5 solved 2023-04-12T17:04:14.187Z
  • KayW solved 2023-04-13T01:39:16.010Z
  • kurtalert solved 2023-04-21T15:17:16.888Z

Comments

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  • benchen71 4:31 · 2023-04-12T00:16:33.657Z
    Nice one. Serious constraints with this one, so well done with the grid fill!
    • woozy constructor · 2023-04-12T01:25:51.575Z
      Whoa! You got that one quick!
      • benchen71 4:31 · 2023-04-12T03:10:11.704Z
        I'm on holidays. Yes, I should be working on my thesis, but not when there's another woozy meta to solve!
    • Account 🤓12:29 · 2023-04-12T15:22:54.646Z
      Very nice! Especially given the tight restrictions!
      • Madhatter5 3s · 2023-04-12T17:04:59.416Z
        Well done woozy! Super creative
        My brother actually lost to this once :)
        • woozy constructor · 2023-04-12T19:19:57.161Z
          But... it requires that white deliberately make bad moves that serve no purpose but to make the mate happen.
          I have lost to a variation that takes about four to six moves where I left myself open and didn't defend against an obvious attack.
        • woozy constructor · 2023-04-12T19:25:29.781Z
          This is awesome and unintentional!
          My intended answer was LOST GAME game in which black's first move was P-K3 (S to T). However, the mate would work just as well black's first move was P-K4 (S to E) [and DOY! that is what is shown in the picture I choice as the banner!] which, thankfully, leads to a second legitimate answer of LOSE GAME!
          I suppose white's move could be reversed so I should also accept GAST LAME and GASE LAME. But I won't..... or will I?
          • KayW 🤓4:03 · 2023-04-13T01:42:22.199Z
            Very well done!! I'm someone who barely knows how to move the pieces, and even I could solve this. And it's the chess world's loss - now the one person in the world who MIGHT have fallen for the Fool's mate knows what it is and how to avoid it. It'll take at least three moves for me to lose now.
            • kurtalert 🤓4:52 · 2023-04-21T15:18:15.937Z
              Thanks, woozy!
              Play today's daily mini crossword
              1A
              Polite address
              1
              2
              3
              4
              5
              6
              7
              8
              9
              10
              11
              12
              13
              14
              15
              16
              17
              18
              19
              20
              21
              22
              23
              Across
              1. 1A
                Polite address
              2. 5A
                In a chess diagram, the home rank for black's major pieces is the top one of these
              3. 8A
                To fill in "TZU" on the entry form rather than the full name of the dog
              4. 10A
                Text editor that was a huge improvement over ex because now you could move your cursor between lines and not be required to only edit one line at a time
              5. 11A
                Popular vodka, informally
              6. 12A
                He used a redwood forest (conveniently located near Culver City) to phone home
              7. 13A
                Common (perhaps the most common) ligature
              8. 14A
                High performance luxury car
              9. 15A
                Lounge about
              10. 17A
                "Sweetie" in the tech age
              11. 18A
                "Peekaboo!" follower
              12. 20A
                "I need a lateral gene transfer. Can you assign a value for me?"
              13. 22A
                Number of full moves in a Fools Mate; also the number letters in an individual move for this meta
              14. 23A
                "Oh, this is so exciting" in the tech age
              Down
              1. 1D
                You will need this to solve the meta
              2. 2D
                "Do my duties include seamstress work?"
              3. 3D
                ChatGPT, supposedly
              4. 4D
                There has to be a peak with the same name as that witch trial city somewhere. Otherwise what are the unincorporated area of Union Township NJ, the neighborhood in Montego, and that doom metal band named for?
              5. 5D
                17th Greek letter
              6. 6D
                Auto fluid indicator
              7. 7D
                Player who loses in a Fools Mate
              8. 9D
                Fr. holy woman
              9. 16D
                Mother of Apollo and Artemis
              10. 17D
                Trunk of a tree
              11. 19D
                Alphabetically the last possible three letter entry that does not contain a "Z". Theoretically
              12. 21D
                Trane Technologies trades under this symbol on the NYSE (there had to be some clue and that's as good as any)
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