Super cool puzzles! On the second one I couldn't find the first move because I didn't look at the coordinates. After pressing the halp button, I was incredibly surprised to find that the best move was what appeared to be putting th king in check! Where did you find this?

Heh, first one fooled me too with the coordinates. Second one was cool.

oinquarki: Where did you find this?

In the book I bought today, "How to think in chess" -- a very unusual and intriguing chess training book, that really seeks to train _chess thinking_. The methods the book encourages involve a level of dedication and discipline that I doubt I can actually muster, but it's just a neat book to have, and it isn't with a major publisher so I figured I better buy it before it disappears. It's the second unusual chess book I've bought in the past two days. Yesterday i found one of botivinnik's technical books on problems in planning for computer chess!  The theory is all super-annuated and the math is completely over my head, but I bought it just to have it cuz it's neat... I think I'm turning into a collector. 

Wow, I'd only seen the first one (hadn't realized it would work flipped around too!).