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Welcome to Puzzle Road! Let’s change a bit and try to solve a checkmate puzzle! Instead of a position from an endgame, with only a few pieces or a position where you will need to draw, today, White can force Black being checkmated. On the way to find the checkmate, you will have many problems and temptations for example winning material. But the variant that we search is not a material win. It’s a great checkmate in 3 moves! Check. Check. Checkmate. 32/ The way to checkmate. (Topic: forced checkmate) Check the solution in this blog if you did not find how to checkmate: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-the-way-to-checkmate-p32 Have a great day, @Kyu13

Welcome to Puzzle Road! Today we will have a special case of a completely won position to a draw position! In the blog, I will first show you the big blunder, that allowed White the Draw, and then we will see how to draw the game with White! This is not the first puzzle of the puzzle road, where you must draw the game in a normally lost position. But it’s always interesting to see the different possibilities to cancel a lost game! In this puzzle, I cannot say you which case of draw we have (else, it would be too easy), but I think most of you can already feel the right moves by watching the position! 31/ I didn’t lose! (Topic: draw) This is the position before White can draw: And now, this is the position of the puzzle, where White can draw with a piece less: Solution of the tactic: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-i-didnt-lose-p31 GG!@Kyu13

Very difficult

Welcome to Puzzle Road! Have you ever player a move in a game, and seen a few second after having played it, that you could have played a better one, to win material? Or to checkmate? How many missed wins do you have in some of your games? I am sure you have the capacities to decrease this number of blunders: you only need a few days training! Today’s puzzle is great, because you first want to play a move, and then hesitate if it’s the best one! (probably) In this puzzle, most of you will directly play Ng3 without thinking about the move you could play else. But is this move really the best? Tell me In the comments your opinion! I’m certain that you won’t all be of the same opinion! 30/ Is the first move you find always the best? (Topic: top secret) Is Ng3 a good move? Answer in this blog: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-is-the-first-move-you-find-always-the-best-p30 Have a good day!@Kyu13

Welcome to Puzzle Road! Endgames. More endgames. Again, endgames. Always more endgames. Never enough endgames!Today’s puzzle is (again) an endgame. This puzzle comes from a position of my coach in a real OTB game in a tournament. Black wins. But how? Try to find the correct moves to promote the pawn without loosing the game! It’s not very difficult, but still strange, because in this case, White can (normally) not stop the pawn! The pawn is in this exercise stronger than the rook if Black play the right moves! 28/ The pawn is stronger than the rook! (Topic: 7th rank and pawn promotion) Solution is findable here: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-the-pawn-is-stronger-than-the-rook-p28 Continue your training, good luck for your future games and have fun in playing chess!@Kyu13

Difficult

Welcome to Puzzle Road! One of the main ideas in the endgame is the opposition of the two kings. If you don’t know what it is, you will strictly never win an endgame if your opponent does not blunder. Opposition: when two kings are face-to-face with a certain quantity of squares between them. Diagonal opposition: same idea, but on a diagonal. Furthermore, the player who has a pawn less can use the opposition to draw the game. An easy example is King and pawn vs. King, because White can only win if the white king is over the white pawn and has taken the opposition to the black king. If Black takes the opposition, the game will certainly end with an extraordinary PAT! 27/ The opposition of two ideas! (Topic: opposition of two kings) Find the solution if needed: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-the-opposition-of-two-ideas-p27 Have a great day and good luck for your future endgames! @Kyu13

Difficult

Very difficult In the game, white missed the tactic and went on to lose.

Welcome to puzzle road! A checkmate can sometimes take long and needs a few preparatory moves to be played. In this puzzle, Black cannot directly checkmate by just easily checking the king. Instead of that, you need to correctly develop a new piece and take control another time of a square that White cannot defend enough to survive to your checkmate attack! We often say that you need at least 3 pieces to make a correct checkmate. This puzzle is the perfect example for this. Indeed, the one rook took already possession of the h-column and the second can come to control the g-column if your bishop would not stand on f8.... And your bishop is inactive. You need to put him on a better square! 26/ Without any good moves! (Topic: preparatory moves) Solution: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-without-any-good-moves-p26 Have fun in playing chess!@Kyu13

Welcome to Puzzle Road! The half of your pieces on the board, from your color, are pawns. The pawns indeed are the most important pieces for a player in my opinion. In the opening, you need to push them and to control some important squares and the center. In the middlegame, you use them to win squares and next win material. In the endgame, the last step of the chess game, you push them as much as you can to reach the 8th rank and to promote them to Queens! In this puzzle, you will need to find a trick to promote them to Queens. How? Push or not push, this is the question! One of your pawns needs only 1 move to reach the 8th rank but would be captured by the opponent’s rook if you move it. If you move your rook away from the 7th rank, your opponent takes the pawn… Moreover, I did add a funny additional comment. It's hidden somewhere in this article: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-push-or-not-push-this-is-the-question-p25 25/ Push or not push, this is the question! (Topic: 7th rank, 8th rank and pawn promotion) Solution: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-push-or-not-push-this-is-the-question-p25 Have a great day!@Kyu13

Very easy

Welcome to Puzzle Road! Today, the partner clubs of The United Chess Nations played all in the multi-club arena and I analyzed some of the games, that have been played there. One of them is particularly interesting, and a great move has been played. I decided to show and explain you this move. Great is a great word. And this move is literally a great great move! Indeed, Black blundered and offers material to his opponent. How? You will first have to find it! The advantage collected by White has been all over the game and White successfully win! 24/ Offering free material? (Topic: double attack, material win) Solution of the puzzle: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-offering-free-material-p24 Have a good day,@Kyu13

Difficult

Welcome to Puzzle Road! The puzzle of today is a beautiful forced checkmate, that you need to play in only 4 moves. Black cannot do anything to stop our attack! (the mate could be in a few more moves if the opponent would play the moves proposed by the chess.com analyzing bot, but these moves are useless and cannot stop the mate!) You will have to find the best moves, without blundering. If you play one wrong move: nothing’s there anymore! Will you solve the puzzle? Let’s see if your answer was correct! 23/ The four fantastic moves! (topic: forced checkmate) Find here ther solution if needed: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-the-four-fantastic-moves-p23 Have a great day!Have fun in playing chess!@Kyu13

Very difficult Black to move and draw

Welcome to Puzzle Road! Today’s puzzle is a beautiful sacrifice to win material! You are surely a future (or maybe already actual) great chess player if you see this one in the first second you watch this puzzle! The position didn’t come in the game I played, because it was only a possible variant, and I blundered a bit the moves I played… (I still drew with a second brilliant move!) In this position, Black has 2 pawns more and played f6 (best move, recommended by Stockfish) The solution to win material is not easy to find and you will need to calculate all the possible variations, the possible moves that your opponent could play. My advice: start with the strangest one, to get in your head something like a schema of the position. 22/ Sacrifice like a Grandmaster! (Topic: sacrifice and X-Ray) Find the solution with this link: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-sacrifice-like-a-grandmaster-p22 Thanks for reading, I hope you liked today's puzzle! Have fun in playing chess,Your friend,@Kyu1

Intermediate

Welcome to puzzle road! I am truly happy of the moves I played in a blitz game! These moves are the one you need to find today to solve the puzzle! Endgame. Promotion. Checkmate. Everything in only one puzzle! Not very complicated to find, but I still needed a few seconds to calculate it and check it was really a good move! Promotion of a pawn is probably the main concept of an endgame and the checkmates often results of it. And today, the checkmate is extremely beautiful! As always, I explain you the moves in my blog. 21/ One queen. Two queens. A checkmate! (Topic: pawn promotion) Check the solution with this link: https://www.chess.com/blog/Kyu13/puzzle-road-one-queen-two-queens-a-checkmate-p21 Have a great day! @Kyu13