Monday, December 14, 2020

Black to play and win

Click here for 15. Kc1.

Friday, December 11, 2020

White to play

Play online chess

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Mate in 3 chess problem from the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit".



I have not yet watched the Netflix series, "The Queen's Gambit", but in episode 6 this composed chess problem was presented to the character Beth Harmon to solve. White to play and mate in 3 moves. I saw it on a youtube video. Almost every chess game in that show has been analyzed extensively on youtube.

Composed mate in 3 problems can be quite difficult to solve, but I've solved this one faster than any composed mate in 3 that I have solved before. Like 20 seconds. The Black pieces have few moves available making the puzzle easier. I asked myself, what would happen if the Black King ran away to h6 or f8, or what if the Black King just ended up on its original square?

Some really difficult composed chess problems have taken me 30 to 60 minutes to solve. I have a knack for Mate in 2 problems, but Mate in 3's can be exponentially more complicated.

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Monday, November 16, 2020

Black to play




Puzzle of the Day! 
Solve this puzzle on interactive board: chesspuzzle.net/Puzzle/158334

Sunday, November 8, 2020

White to play

Play online chess
Click here for 47. Kxe4.

Friday, October 30, 2020

Black to play

Play online chess

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Friday, October 16, 2020

Tricky Ending

Most King and Pawn endings are relatively simple to play, but there are exceptions called "corresponding square" positions that are technically very complicated. Most players below the level of Expert wouldn't even know that these endings exist. I have had a couple of these kinds of endings memorized for around 25 years, but this particular ending I did not know. My first impression looking at the position is that the game would be a draw. As White, Grandmaster Firouzja lost to the world champion Magnus Carlsen because he did not find the correct move here. The right move is counterintuitive. However, I would assume that most professional players would know these positions by heart.  


Saturday, October 10, 2020

A bad opening goes very bad





[Event "Casual Game"]
[Site "https://itsyourturn.com"]
[Date "2020.09.22"]
[Round "?"]
[White "John Coffey"]
[Black "francishenryd"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D07"]
[WhiteElo "2016"]
[PlyCount "33"]
[EventDate "2020.09.22"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nc6 3. c4 Nf6 4. cxd5 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qd8 6. d5 Nb4 7. Qa4+ Bd7 8.
Qxb4 b6 9. Qb3 e6 10. e4 exd5 11. e5 Ne4 12. Qxd5 Nxc3 13. bxc3 Be6 14. Bb5+
Bd7 15. Bxd7+ Ke7 16. Ba3+ c5 17. Qd6# 1-0

Sunday, September 6, 2020


Black to move and win. GM Boris Gelfand of Israel (White) vs GM Hikaru Nakamura of USA (Black) in 2010. Can you find a winning move for Black?

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Black to play

White to play and win

This takes some effort to solve.

White to win

Black to Win

White to play.

Nice!