Do you play with these?

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Avatar of WellRounded

I've come across what are called Chess Miniatures.  Positions that are clearly won for white, but the goal is to force mate in three.  I didn't post this in the puzzle section because my questions is really what you guys think about these.  At first I basically dismissed them because I thought they were fairly useless, but now I'm beginning to wonder maybe doing hundreds of them(Which you can find online) would improve some kind of skill.  Whatever that skill set is. What do you think?

 

The first move in one of these puzzles is to find the "Key Move" so forced mate isn't clearly this move this move this move, it's a lot of if-then.

Avatar of RosarioVampire

I always hated these..could never find the key move.

Avatar of Puchiko

It's more about knowing key patterns-knowing what a position two or threee moves from mate looks like. If you play OTB with shorter time controls, you'll need to mate fast, but it might be faster to blitz out a 15-move mate than ponder over the quickest (in moves) mate while your clock quickly ticks away...

But if you do a lot of these (taken from real games,  not compositions), you'll be able to spot  quick mates in real games as well.

Question is whether it's worth investing your energy in these, traditional tactics puzzles might be a quicker way to improve.

Of course, that's just from a pragmatic perspective. Chess is a hobby. So if you enjoy these, do them. If you loathe them, don't touch them.

Avatar of Guest0286324504
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