“Mate in Zero”: Solution
Solution to Mate in Zero:
Here’s the position again:
What piece did Black move last? It wasn’t the pawn on h4, which must have walked over from e7. The only other possibility is the pawn on c5, which must have moved from c7.
Then where did the white pawn on c6 come from? There’s only one possibility: White is midway through an en passant capture. That’s the only way this position could have arisen even momentarily in a legal chess game.
So now White just completes the capture, removing the black pawn on c5, and that’s mate:
From Thomas B. Rowland, Chess Fruits, 1884.
