Puzzle Rush Cheat Sheet: Finding Long Mates [Part 1]

Theme: Tactics

Level: Beginner

Let's be honest. Everyone is capable of solving a mating puzzle if they are given enough time to examine a position - they can just brute force, exhausting all possible moves to get to the correct solution. This guide is not about how to find mate, you just need the time and brain juice to do that; it is about what general strategies we can use to calculate mate efficiently. 

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1. Calculate ALL Checks First!

Forcing moves, or checks, are the easiest to calculate as your opponent is forced to either move their king, block the check, or capture your piece. The variations are limited and you should be able to calculate them quickly. 

puzzle 1: checks first

In the puzzle above, you might be tempted to try 1...Qh3 with a double checkmate idea 2...Qh2# or 2...Qg2#, but white is not forced to respond to your threat directly. 2.Qxd4+! Kf7 3.Qf6+!! Rxf6 4.gxh3 and white is up a knight and a bunch of pawns - there are other king moves but we are lost. Truth is, you don't even need to calculate the line above to find the mate if you consider all the checks first! The puzzle solution 1...Rxg2+ forcefully wins in 3 moves.

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2. Prioritize Checks that Restrict the Opponent the Most.

Even if a puzzle only involves checks, there might be so many permutations that it becomes impossible to go through all of them in limited time. After identifying all the possible checks, you should calculate the more promising ones first, aka those that restrict your opponent's king and pieces the most. There are two upsides to this strategy: it involves less calculation and usually the right mating sequence is the one that slowly weaves a mating net around the enemy king. 

puzzle 2: prioritize restrictive checks

In the puzzle above, after 3.Kh3, we have multiple possible checks: 3...Qf3+, 3...Qe3+, 3...Qf5+, but 3...Qf3+ is the most restrictive as the white king can only move to h4 square. With similar logic, 4...Bf2 is also the most restricting check and 5.Kg5 is forced. We find the mate easily without going into any lengthy calculations by thinking of the most forcing variations first. 

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3. Save Time with Transpositions.

Sometimes, a move is simply inferior to another one because of transposition, be it a move by you or your opponent. You don't have to recalculate everything once you identify the transposing move (just be careful not to overlook some subtleties). The following example is a simple one, but it will be enough to illustrate my point:

puzzle 3: transposition

After 1.Nd6+, the black king has two choices: 1...Kd7 or 1...Ke7. If you calculate one of them further, you will notice 1...Kd7 2.Qc8 Ke7 3.Qb7+ transposes with 1...Ke7 2.Qb7+. This will save you the trouble of recalculating both of the lines separately. It might not be apparent how this saves time in a short example like this, but imagine long sequences of 20-move mating puzzles. Thank me later.

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4. Change Move Order.

Just because ABC doesn't work, doesn't mean BCA, BAC, CAB, CBA, or ACB won't work! If you calculate a mating sequence and it isn't quite right, don't discard it yet. Try changing the move order and see if you make progress.

puzzle 4: move order

1.Rc5+?? Bxc5 2.Ne7+ Bxe7 3.Be4+ Nxe4 4.d5+ and our opponent escapes with 4...Kc5. What if we change the move order a bit, and check with knight first? You will notice some magic happens.

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[End Notes: This is just part 1 on how to find long mating sequences! I will be covering quiet moves in the next part, and possibly a little about visualizing final mate setups. As for the Puzzle Rush Cheat Sheet series, I also hope to talk about winning materials, positional puzzles, and endgames in future!] 

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Revision Puzzle: Converting the Damiano

Check out my previous post about the Damiano Defense here!