Welcome to my blog. In this blog, I will have 10 types of puzzles, puzzling you. Each will be made more interesting as we advance. The 10 types of puzzles are:
Mate in 1
Mate in 2
Brilliant move puzzles
Great move puzzles
Pawn endgame puzzles
Stalemating tricks
Turning hopeless positions hopeful
Zugzwang
Finding tactical opportunities
Blockading pawns
Are you ready to be puzzles? Let's begin!
MATE IN 1
The mate in 1 is a common type of checkmate puzzle. To find it, we screen out checks that lead to a checkmate. They can be a normal move, a capture, pawn promotion, en-passent and even castling. We can practice them in chess.com>Puzzles>Custom puzzles>choose your puzzle elo rating and select mate in 1.
POV: You are doing mate in 1 puzzles.
These kind of position appear. I am showing puzzle with solution.
Moving onto puzzles:
#1: Find mate in 1 if black's king has shifted towards white's territory, throwing white's king and a knight in black's territory but white knight has threatened checkmate. It might feel difficult to find mate in 1 for beginners but it's an easy mate. If you play a waiting move then black will threaten to promote. Think outside the box and find a stunning checkmate.
#2: Black king is trapped near the corner of the board but any move can lead to a stalemate. Find the only move in this position that leads to a checkmate.
MATE IN 2
The mate in 2 is also a common type of checkmate puzzle. To find it, we screen out checks that lead to a checkmate. Then, we look out for positions that are checkmates in 2 moves. We can practice them in chess.com>Puzzles>Custom puzzles>choose your puzzle elo rating and select mate in 2.
POV: You are doing mate in 2 puzzles.
These kind of positions appear. This is Paul Morphy puzzle solution.
Now, let's solve puzzles.
#1: This is very simple. All pieces are allotted according to the mate in 2 puzzles. Find the moves if your opponent played d4.
#2: You are now playing with black pieces. White blundered. It is not an ordinary blunder, it tells you to force mate in 2. Find mate in 2.
BRILLIANT MOVE PUZZLES
A brilliant move is a stunning sacrifice, helping you to get a good position, tactical opportunity or checkmate. It can be either queen sacrifice or a light to heavy process. I have a habit to review games with brilliant moves and save the move in my photo album. I show one of the picture.
Brilliant move!!
These kind of positions appear. I have a puzzle with solution as a sample.
Puzzle time!!
#1: Find the brilliant moves if black is a greedy player.
#2: This is not a checkmate but it wins material. You are in a situation where your bishop is checkmated. It has no escapes but is pinned to the rook. Imagine you have black pieces. White just castled queenside. What is black's best response?
GREAT MOVE PUZZLES
A great move is the only move to be made in the position. It can be successful promotion of pawn, grabbing of queen, quick checkmates, drawing games and so on. I tend to find these moves in pawn endgames.
The position appears like this. I show a problem with a solution.
Let's get puzzled.
#1: The kings are in their opponents territory and pacmaned f and g pawns. The h pawns advanced. How can white promote his pawn?
#2: White is totally winning. In the puzzle, black blunders. Give a punishment to black.
PAWN ENDGAME PUZZLES
Even if pawns worth 1 point, they promote into a queen or underpromote into the rook to avoid stalemates. Promoting your pawn is important for you and stopping your pawn is important for your opponent. The position must have a passed pawn but we can create it by the pawn breakthrough.
The position can appear like this. I have the problem with the solution.
Confusing you with puzzles!!
#1: Put black in zugzwang.
#2: White puts his pawn on third rank. Black's king is in the imaginary square of the pawn. How can black draw the game?
STALEMATING TRICKS
A stalemate is a draw in which a player has no legal moves without the king in check. When you stalemate the opponent, you might feel mad but when you get stalemated, you might feel calm and safe. To frustrate the opponent, We use some tricks. One of those tricks are to sacrifice everything to get stalemated.
Gh:ah! :hmmmmmmmmm woh!
The Puzzles might trick you like this.
Solving time!
#1: In a game, black resigned because he thought the pawn is unstoppable. Taking will be a loss of material. He has a king, who can only have two legal squares. Is he wrong? If you agree, you are correct because of this puzzle.
#2: Dig the board to find a stalemate.
TURNING HOPELESS POSITIONS HOPEFUL
You feel hopeless when you do not have enough material to win the game and therefore, you resign. Please don't do it sometimes because you may have a drawing trick. Finding hope for some people is difficult. This means that you think you are losing but the game is equal or you are winning.
The position appears like this. I show the problem with the solution.
Puzzling your brain's king!
#1: Find a draw.
#2: The pawn advances like a rocket but there's a hidden checkmate. Find it.
ZUGZWANG
A zugzwang (Zugzwang) is a compulsion to move. It is a German chess term. It means every move to be made by a player is a bad move. It can make a person resign.
: I am trapped!?
: no, checkmate
This can be the positional appearance. I show the problem with the solution.
Time to trap our opponent with some puzzles.
#1: Play a stunning move to find mate in 2.
#2: Put white in zugzwang and find the checkmate.
FINDING TACTICAL OPPORTUNITIES
A tactic is a set of moves that lead to a material gain. People say that fork, pin, skewer, discovered attack and removal of defender are the main tactics. When an unexpected move enters your tactic, it can be called zwischenzug (in between move/intermediate move). Find tactics in the kitchen.
Answer: Fork and skewer 🍴🍡
The puzzles may look like this. I have a puzzle with a solution, taken as a sample example.
#1: Find two brilliant moves if our opponent wants to be checked by the promoted queen and win the rook endgame.
#2: Black has put their queen in the wrong square and she is lost. Can you capitalise his mistake?
BLOCKADING PAWNS
Blockading a pawn means controlling the advance of the pawn. Knights, pawns and kings are the best blockaders and the queen, the rook and the bad bishops and worst blockaders. We first block the pawn. If a blockade is unavailable, we restrain it. After that we attack and capture the pawn.
queenshop
We include blocking pawns only. I show the puzzle with the solution.
Now, we solve the final sort of puzzles.
#1: The white king landed close to the middle pawn than the black one and black blunders. Find the responses.
#2: White made a blunder by blockading the pawn. Can you find an opportunity?
CONCLUSION
I hope you have read my blog, solved 20/20 Puzzles and understood each topic. Now, I thank you for reading my blog.
:hmmmmmmmmm woh!
queenshop