This morning, at the coffee corner in our office, I met a colleague who mentioned he'd be joining a chess club. So I asked him: "And, how was your first evening at the chess club?"
"Well, it was a rather short one.", he replied, looking rather sad.
"Oh, what happened?"
"I had the black pieces. Because I was new, my opponent let me make three moves for free. You told me king safety is important, so I first concentrated on getting my king into safety in the corner. However, after we both made three more moves, I was still mated on the next move."
I thought back to when I showed him the smothered mate. I said: "King in the corner, let me see... did you let your king be smothered perhaps?"
"No, my bishop's pawns were still in their original positions. I still had all my pawns, for what it's worth."
Unfortunately, I had to rush to a meeting, so I couldn't ask him for the complete game. I didn't see him again that day, but on the way back home I was able to figure out which moves were played. That was a sad loss indeed ...
TL;DR: Construct a chess game where
- White skips the first three moves
- Otherwise, play continues normally
- White gives mate on the 7th move
- The black king ends in the corner
- Black still has 8 pawns, including two on c7 and f7
(story inspired by previous questions; the puzzle itself is original)
This puzzle is an entry in the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #40: Retrograde Analysis.
