A reflexmate is a chess puzzle where the player controlling the white pieces must, on their first move, compel the opponent playing the black pieces to deliver checkmate within a predetermined number of moves, even if the opponent does not wish to do so. Additionally, both players are bound by the requirement that if either of them has the opportunity to deliver checkmate, they must take it.
The following study, created by Štefan Sovík in 1990, is truly remarkable, as it contains three types of solution, each of them presented in three variants. Let’s take a look at the first one, which is based on unpinning a white piece, followed by forced repinning the same piece in another way, and checkmating by returning the black piece to its original location:
Three more variations lead to the unpinning of white pieces, but these checkmates do not involve switchback maneuvers:
And finally, the last three options are performed by unpinning a black piece that checkmates in the following move: