Raymond Smullyan presented this puzzle on the cover of his excellent 1980 book The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. Black moved last. What was his move?
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There’s no legal move by which Black could have removed one of his own pieces from the board, so he must have moved the king. It’s illegal for two kings ever to occupy adjacent squares, so the king must have moved to a8 from a7. White’s previous move must have placed him in check there. White cannot have accomplished this with a bishop move, as the white bishop cannot have moved to its present position from another diagonal. The only other possibility is a discovered check by a knight:
So, in this position, White moved the knight from b6 to a8, discovering check, and Black captured the knight with his king.
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