Chaturaji Puzzles!

1. Simple yet deceiving puzzle!!

Yellow playing for second; Kxf4++ brings him up to 16, guaranteed second from autoclaim

2.  Puzzle inspired by a game I played recently.

Rg7 threatening Ra7 trapping the bishop; if green moves king (Kh3) he loses a pawn

hmm you too good box I added a new puzzle

3. 3-player endgame puzzle

This one is unclear because you can't predict what red and blue will do. Unless one of them feeds you, you are not getting 1st, but you would like to get 2nd. Unfortunately, if red is paying attention, they will likely yeet their king into blue. If you play something obvious like Rf2 or Rg2+ or Ra5+ or Ra6, red can play Kf6 and get second place for free. The result of the game depends on what red does. 

I would go for Ra7, here's the explanation:

If Ra7:

Scenario 1: Ra7 and red yeets king into blue. Blue takes red king, yellow takes pawn, regardless of whether it's protected. Blue autoclaims win, and we are at 18 due to the pawn we took, so we tie for 2nd instead of getting 3rd.

Scenario 2: Ra7 and red king doesn't yeet into blue. Blue will eventually promote a rook, which you can trade, putting you ahead of red. Assuming no random teaming in KvKvK, we get 2nd.

If not Ra7:

Scenario 3: Red yeets king into blue, we get 3rd from autoclaim.

Scenario 4: Red doesn't yeet king into blue, we are fine, probably 2nd from eventually trade with promoted blue rook.

Note that blue cannot yeet his king into red for tied 1st since red either has to yeet first or move out of range.

Two more puzzles!! Again, if you don't want to get the answer spoiled before you try and solve it, then don't scroll down. 

1. What is blue's best move?

This looks pretty straightforward; Bh3 trades off this bishop and we can later play Kb7 to neutralize red's pawns, and blue is in a good position to try to get 1st.

2. Incredibly interesting 3-player endgame puzzle

Here red has 3 ideas: 1, to promote his advanced pawn; 2, to go after yellow's pawns; 3, to promote his less-advanced pawn.

Idea 1 will not work if yellow goes after the pawn next move

Idea 2 will not work if yellow focuses on pushing and defending his pawns

Idea 3 will not work if yellow and/or blue harrass you with their rook

As you can see, which idea is correct depends on what the other players do. However, the move here is pretty clear; red should play Kd4, which threatens to support the advanced pawn and threatens to go after yellow's pawns, and it also helps if you want to push the less advanced pawn. Note that you can play Ke5 next move which threatens both yellow's pawn and to protect your own, so yellow cannot both capture your pawn and defend his.

However, if you capture yellow's pawn and yellow captures yours, you may still lose if yellow captures your remaining pawn and then trades rooks with green. Nonetheless, Kd4 is clearly the best choice here.

Interesting! This is not the move I would play in this position, but honestly you could make an argument for a lot of different moves, each one having its own possible risks and rewards. Even so, I would argue there is a move even better than Kd4

Ke3 is the correct answer to the second puzzle!

Yeah I personally think it's best for red to go for second because trying to keep playing could be risky and result in you ending up as third. Anyways tho, I have a new puzzle to showcase: 

Yeah I personally think it's best for red to go for second because trying to keep playing could be risky and result in you ending up as third. Anyways tho, I have a new puzzle to showcase: 

This is a weird puzzle since the solution revolves around red being a very strong, clear-headed player. But you have nothing to gain from not playing the solution, so I guess it works:

Yellow should play Kc5, after which green will always play Ke3. If red takes yellow's king, he goes up to 17, but green takes his rook and goes to 19, and green will be able to sac his kind onto the pawn and tie for first. Therefore, if red wants to win, he cannot take yellow's king, and must move his rook instead. Red will easily get 1st, green will not get to take red's rook, and yellow will get 2nd.

Refuting other options:

Obviously, you cannot move to the d-file since green will take you. You cannot hang your king onto c3 or b3 since red is forced to take you. Kxb4 is bad because after Ke3 red will play cxb4 and win. Kb5 Ke3 works like Kc5 since red taking your king would result in a tie, but red will just play Rd6 and kill your king later, which is why Kc5 is the only move.

As for the previous puzzle, I feel like it's still a bit unclear. Maybe you should add notes on the puzzles (e.g. red to play and win, blue to play and secure 2nd place, etc.).