Breaking Down A Puzzle Step By Step

Hi guys.

Even with my life making such twists and turns, graduating high school, preparing for college, and burning out of blogging, I still wish to share some content for you guys! Here is a cool tactic on Chess.com I solved today, and I want to take you through the step-by-step process I went through solving the tactic. 

Will this turn into a series? Not sure. I guess we will see if the audience likes it! My goal is to help open the eyes for less-experienced players on how to properly solve tactics, and as we know, practice does pay, so doing well in tactics should yield you good results over the board!

The very first thing I notice is that Black just took our Queen!  We need to avenge that loss! I scan through my checks, captures, and threats (something highly recommended, rather than jumping around moves, cause you might miss something!). If you want to solve this for yourself, feel free to do so. I will be explaining my thought process, and the solution will be revealed eventually!

In the position above, White's only check is 1. Nxf6+. Not working after 1... Qxf6. Our captures are 1. Rxd1 (come on man, they took your lady... you can do better than that!), 1. Nxc5, and 1. Nxf7. None of those moves sound satisfactory. However, the threats seem interesting!

The theme I have in mind is playing Nxf6 WITHOUT the Black Queen defending that square. Can we make it happen? Yes, we can! If you found the first move 1. Nd7(!), trying to distract the Queen and gang up on the f6-square, then give yourselves a pat on the back!

But wait, the tactic does not end here! Black will calmy defend with 1... Be7(!). Do we end here? We HAVE to make Nxf6 work! Let's think about the position a little bit. We have pressure on f6. And if the Queen is drawn away from f6, we will mate them. Re8+ would be a perfect way to do so. But we can't play Re8+! Or can we...

We don't care. We're playing 2. Nexf6+ anyway! You must open the e-file, so the other Knight does not work. After 2... Bxf6, the e-file is opened. 

We can put 3. Re8+(!) on the board, and this time, the Black Queen is distracted and must take. Finally, we get 4. Nxf6# on the board.  

What a pretty mate with the Knight and Bishop!

I hope you liked this blog. This is my first time trying this format that I remember, so please leave a comment if it was helpful, or not helpful!  

Otherwise, have a great day, and I'll see you during a future post! 

P.S. I offer chess lessons for an affordable price! View my profile and send me a message if interested!