What is the missing piece (marked
"?") in this configuration of a normal chess game?
BLACK
WHITE
Notice that the Black King is in check by the White Rook.
8) The thing I was missing is that there are 5 black pieces missing from the board. This means that the white pawn which eventually queened started at f2, and captured 4 pieces (moving from column f to e to d to c and then back to d). And that the pawn presently at g3 started at g2. It is not possible that the pawn at g3 started at f2, because that would mean that it had captured 1 piece and that the pawn starting at g2 had to capture 5 pieces in order to give the revealed check. But 1 + 5 = 6, which is not possible. Therefore, the black pawn which started at h7 could only queen by capturing from h3 to g2 (a white square), just as DejMar says. Therefore, White's black bishop is still somewhere on the board. Guess where!
Oh, now I see (spoiler)
