The beauty and complexity of chess

Chess is a beautiful yet complex game.

Let me illustrate with a few well chosen positions, and solutions will be given at the very bottom of this post.

Middlegame tactics and variations calculations

POSITION 1 WHITE TO PLAY

Not only should you find the best move for White, but your calculation should be at least 5 moves deep. The GM with White managed to play this position correctly and won the game !

This is definitely not a puzzle battle/puzzle rush early position....

POSITION 2: ENDGAME INTUITION

The position has few pieces left, yet it remains difficult !

WHITE TO PLAY

Can you find the unique path to the win for White ?

POSITION 3: ENDGAME CHALLENGE

There are so many studies out here, even if a few number of pieces. It is almost as if middlegame tactics are easier to solve than endgame study material. 

WHITE TO PLAY

This one is really beautiful. Solutions at the end of the post. Congrats if you figured it out on your own

POSITION 4: BACK TO THE MIDDLEGAME. A HIDDEN RESOURCE

Black to play !

This is from a famous GM game. Even Stockfish14 today will take a while to find the best move, at least on my machine. It won't find it after 30 seconds or 1 minute but eventually it settles on the winning idea played in the game.

POSITION 5:  A VERY COMPLEX POSITION, FROM A REAL GAME

White to play

Several options but what is the BEST Move for White to play ? Can you calculate the lines for lets say best move and second best move for White ? Let's say there is no unique solution on this one.

I would think this is extremely difficult, meaning I wouldn't be surprised to see a GM fail to calculate the lines even after a 20 minutes thought. There are so many candidate moves for move #1 and so many lines to evaluate !

But I think it's quite interesting when you see the solution !

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and now the solutions !!!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5 This is from Morozevich-MVL and later on MVL stunned his opponent with ..Rh7!

But Morozevich missed Be6+!!