Daily Puzzle Analysis 6/9/2025

Here is my analysis for today's daily puzzle!

Key Tactic: Mating Net

At the start of the puzzle:

- White is down a knight and a rook for two pawns.

- White's bishop on f5 is currently pinned.

- Black's king is in the middle of the board, and it currently has no escape squares.

So, I should probably find a way to checkmate Black's king.

First, checks. Because our f5-bishop is pinned, it cannot deliver any checks. Next, I consider queen checks. Ideally, the queen check should also cover the c4-square, which is currently covered by White's queen.

I see 1. Qb5+, which checks Black's king and keeps the c4-square under control. However, this fails because Black's c7-knight controls b5 and will simply take the queen with 1. ... Nxb5.

There is another queen check that controls c4 and checks Black's king - the easily overlooked 1. Qa2#. Black has no counter to this move, so it is checkmate. And the puzzle is solved!

I didn't consider the other reasonable check of 1. c4+ when solving the puzzle. This fails because Black can play 1. ... Kxd4, and Black can actually hold the position.

Nice puzzle, chess.com!

I hope this helps, and have a nice Monday!