2400!

2400!

I used to work on my “Puzzles rating” (used to be called “Tactics rating” on chess.com before it was renamed) routinely. I would only do five puzzles per day and then do the “Daily Puzzle” on chess.com, but I’d hardly ever miss even a single day. I kept with it for a long time and that determination has served me well.

As some may know, I’ve been working on an ambitious goal; I have been working towards reaching 50+ in chess.com’s Puzzle Rush Survival. I’ve been working on that goal (on and off) for several months, but still to no avail. The funny thing is that the very first time I ever tried Puzzle Rush Survival, I scored 46 in that attempt. I haven’t scored higher since (I have, however, come very close a few times and might have tied 46 perhaps once). Back then, 50+ was not yet a goal of mine. That goal was for my chess.com friend @ZionPureinHeart. His goal was to reach 50+, so months later: I thought that sounded like a goal I wanted to reach as well.

Congratulations to them for reaching 50+ before I have (I’ve yet to reach it, but still working on it!). However, I did something that might have been a mistake in hindsight…when I began working towards my Puzzle Rush ambitions, I stopped my daily puzzles routine. I’d still do the Daily Puzzle often, but my tactics were no longer something I’d set time aside for consistently. The Puzzle Rush Survival wasn’t “extra training.” It was a substitute for me. Maybe it is no wonder I haven’t reached my goal yet?

I decided that I should work towards improving my ability a bit more formally if I want to become better at chess. Roughly a week ago, I decided to begin solving puzzles/tactics habitually again. My months-long-hiatus left my puzzles rating at 2181. I can see how much I’ve improved over those months because I began to gain puzzles rating as soon as I resumed. I slowly climbed into the 2200 range and then the 2300 range and soon later was realizing I was breaking my all-time record. It was not a goal to reach 2400 puzzles rating at all, but I was solving some and noticed my rating was about 30 points short of 2400. I thought that would be a cool number to attain, so I continued solving. A few puzzles later into that same session - I reached exactly 2400 chess.com Puzzles Rating!

There are so many forum threads and blog articles that gleefully assert milestones. I got to x-rating! I reach y-in puzzles! I beat z-rated opponent! I’m happy to give a sincere “congratulations” and short comment to these accomplishments; however, I believe the author misses a great opportunity there. If an accomplishment makes you happy enough to post about it, then perhaps it would be a nice chance to share more context and help others. Cool that x-rating was reached etc., but what were the bumps on that journey and how did you overcome them? Was there a crossroads decision you can attribute to reaching this accomplishment? Is there something else you can offer for others sharing in your celebratory moment?

I won’t miss this opportunity! I’d like to share a few of the puzzles that stood out to me close to reaching 2400. Perhaps a same puzzle will appear in the journey of someone else and they will succeed because they recall this blog article. How cool is that? My journey might help someone else on their own journey? Even if the reader does not share a goal related to chess.com puzzles, then perhaps they may still gain something from the annotations - at the very least it may be entertaining for a few seconds.

Puzzle #1

The first move that appealed to me was 1. Nd7+. It intuitively felt “correct.” Perhaps because a forcing check is something to look for, but also perhaps because I sense the urgency to maintain the initiative. If I play a slower move, then …Qxf2+ is looking like Black gets checkmate or a perpetual check at least. This is especially dangerous because 1. Kg2? walks into the Bishop’s scope. As I suspected, the post-puzzle analysis reveals that move draws as Black can get a perpetual.

However, now I am also looking at 1. Nh7+ here. What is better now? 1. Nd7+ or 1. Nh7+ I wonder? Without an answer yet, those few seconds have ticked by and I see the “target time” has passed! I shake my head at how ridiculous that is. The target time for this problem is currently just 28 seconds! The puzzle current stats reveal that the average time taken is 2 minutes and 10 seconds and I took close to twice that to solve this. The key is to not let it bother you too much and to focus on solving the puzzle accurately.

After a little calculating, I determined that 1. Nh7? is inferior because I can’t find more than a draw in the line 1. Nh7+? Kg8 2. Qe8+ Kxh7 3. Qxf7+ and it looks like the Black King just shuffles. The lone Queen isn’t enough to checkmate here. I then calculate the 1. Nd7+ variations some more. For a while I thought that 1. Qe8+ might lead to something, but then 1…Kg7 2. Qg8+ Kxf6 3. Qh8+ Ke7 and the sacrifice was in vain - the Black monarch is escaping and Black will probably win once the initiative flutters away. Okay, my mind sometimes distracts itself from variations in puzzles (why I included various lines here similar to how I thought of them), the line to look at was 1. Nd7+. Now 1. Nd7+ Kg8 2. Qe8+ Kh7 (2…Kg7 3. Qf8 Kh7 4. Nf6# is checkmate but this important sideline eluded my thought process for a while) 3. Qxf7+ and that is where the puzzle ended, but I had it calculated out deeper than this.

The continuation I visualized was 3…Kh6 4. Qf8+ Kh5 (…Kg5? 5. Qf4+ Kh5 6. Qh4# is checkmate) 5. Qh8+ Kg5 6. Qh4+ Kf5 7. Qf4# (although Stockfish also found 7. Qg4# as well). Knowing I had checkmate, I moved the first piece: 1. Nd7+ correct and the rest I solved from my calculation. I solved this puzzle correct, but how is anyone supposed to navigate these complications within 28 seconds? Ah, that is how…my name is not Ivanchuk! This puzzle comes from round 15 of the World Blitz Final of 2012. Ivanchuk had the White pieces and Karjakin had the Black pieces. As my calculation revealed, the puzzle was a checkmate in 7, but I probably would have lost on time in a blitz game versus Karjakin from here.

Puzzle #2

In this position, White has just captured a pawn on b5 and it is now Black to move. Black is now down a pawn, so how do they proceed? I felt like there might be a mating net somewhere, but how to begin? I looked at …Qh1, but didn’t think I could finesse something here. What about the check with …h4 then? It has got to be this. Is there anything else? …h4 has to be it. 8 seconds of deliberation, that felt like 8 minutes, went by and I play …h4?? Incorrect! Aww, I should have calculated some more to be sure. I didn’t see anything else though. I flipped the puzzle order because I solved this puzzle incorrectly before I solved the first puzzle shown (correct). Perhaps, I had learned my lesson and made sure I had it thought-out that time.

If not …h4+ then what is there? I spent another five to ten minutes I’d say trying different lines and having them all turn up incorrect. All right, sometimes, you just have to throw your hands up into the air and ask: “what is the best move then?”

1…Bg5! Wait, what? Okay, that move I didn’t see at all! I’m down by a pawn, yet I now sacrifice a piece? This analysis I got to see. White wasting a move (say 2. Nc7) results in checkmate by 2…h4+ Kh2 Qh1# Ah, my intuition of …Qh1 wasn’t so far off, but the move order was wrong. Almost eerie that I looked at …Qh1 first since it doesn’t really appear to do anything. Strange that it was pretty close to the solution. The testing line is obviously: what if they take the offered Bishop? 1…Bg5! 2. fxg5 h4+ 3. Kh2 Qh1# is similar fashion to before!

I think the key to solving this puzzle on the first attempt was to look at how the player can support …h4+ and the Bishop on g5 does this. If White takes the sacrificed Bishop, then the discovery allows the Queen to support …h4+ and White is lost. The first move was most certainly the toughest move in the puzzle to find, but the solution was elegant once found.

Puzzle #3

Now this puzzle looks a lot more straight-forward in thinking. White is down material (so they aren’t playing for an endgame - that much is for sure!) and yet the g-file pressure is chanting for the Queen to crash through on g7. Plus, it is pretty natural to look for forcing moves like checks - yes, it sacrifices the Queen, but what good is that if we miss checkmate because of it. I am also curious if there are ways to win Black’s Queen tactically if the King hunt fizzles out. These are just loose thoughts though - I instantly begin calculating for 1. Qxg7+. I quickly come up with 1. Qxg7+ Rxg7 2. Rxg7+ Kf8 (…Kh8 is a fast checkmate easy to spot via 3. Rg8+ Kh7 4. R1g7#), but now at this point comes the key.

I realized that Rg8+?? loses. The Black King gets safety and we lost the Queen for not enough. I could visualize out: Rg8+?? Kf7 R1g7+ Ke6 Re8+ Kd6 and my Ba3+ had no satisfactory reply to …c5. Eureka! That must be it! Play Ba3+ first and it brings another piece into the attack. The line so far is: 1. Qxg7+ Rxg7 2. Rxg7+ Kf8 3. Ba3+! c5 4. Bxc5+ Ke8 and I found 5. Re7+.

I thought I found my way to checkmate, but it is a shame the puzzle ended here. I thought one final way to go astray existed. After 5. Re7+, then …Kd8?? blunders into Rg8#. However, what about the defensive attempt 5. Re7+ Kf8!? which interestingly prevents Rook to g8 being checkmate. The final way to go astray would be the discovered attack with Rxe5+ to win back the Queen. Here Rxe5+? Kf7 Rxf5?? Bxf5 only gives an endgame where White is down by a pawn with drawing chances. I thought the puzzle would have continued to test if the player actually calculated this far like I had. I planned to go for more than the Queen! I continue ahead with 5. Re7+ Kf8!? 6. Rc7+ Ke8 7. Rg8#

I suspect the puzzle ended when it did because in retrospect, other discovered checks also checkmate in the same number of moves. For example, 6. Rh7+ Ke8 7. Rg8# and this is equally game-ending. With this puzzle, I missed the target time by literally one second. I still gained 12 points for solving this puzzle correctly though and more impressive: this pushed me to exactly 2400 chess.com Puzzles Rating!

It was not a goal of mine, but it does come as a surprising achievement out of indirectly working on my Puzzle Rush Survival goal of 50+. I’m happy to be making progress, but I hope I at least gave others something from sharing this. At the very least, maybe someone enjoyed one of the puzzle solutions as much as I did?

Here is to all of us reaching our chess goals and milestones by working hard and staying dedicated and determined!