There's a lot of different thought processes, but most of them will probably revolve around the following:
- looking for possible checkmate patterns (ie. trying to imagine what the final position might look like, where the opponent is in checkmate)
- looking at all checks to see if it forces mate.
- looking at all ways to threaten to checkmate - can it be stopped?
Post an example and I'm sure some folks will write what they thought about in solving it, which might be the best way!
You mean from "Eduardo Sadier 50000 positions of mate in two" ?
These are difficult, and they're not realistic chess positions. They look like compositions. They're worth doing, but normally mate in two exercises are much easier than these.
Learn the basic checkmates: KQvK, KRvK, KBBvK, KBNvK. You must be able to play these in your sleep. These are important not because you need to know them in a game, but because it teaches you the mating patterns. All of these use the corralling method to tighten the noose around the opposing king. Once you know these mates, solutions to mate problems will often just pop off the board and be obvious to you. When you look at mate in 2 or 3, look at which squares the opposing king can move to. Then look at checks and captures.
If you want to get more serious I would suggest getting the gold membership at chesstempo.com. You can select specific tactics problems, like mate in 1 or 2, or specific themes like smothered mate, Anastasia's mate, and many others. It helps to see the same pattern over and over until you master it. Most of solving mate problems is pattern recognition, so you just have to keep trying and seeing examples, and eventually it will click. Don't try to solve every position no matter what. Spend a few minutes, and if you don't solve it, look at the solution. If it's a pattern your brain hasn't seen, you are better off just looking at the solution. The goal is to get many patterns into your brain, not to solve every problem.
@rt1129 - all good advice, but the problem set the OP is using are unrealistic positions, compositions. Mating patterns you've never seen before and will never see again
I'd suggest to the OP that they look for a better set of problems, and don't be discouraged by this set.
Edit: absolutely agree with rt1129's latest post - and chesstempo is excellent.
All good comments, thank you! Ilovethestinker is right in that it might be my IQ and IpswichMatt is right because it was from "Eduardo Sadier 50000 positions of mate in two".
The following examples had me stumped for ages. Could I win from this position, hell yes; could I win in two moves, not without spending about three hours thinking about it:
It's white to play and my thought process was to start with queen, but I can't move it unless I take black's.
I clicked that I couldn't move my king because of the risk of check and then started looking at the knights.
I didn't pay much attention to the bishop initially because it can't threaten the king. And by the time I started considering it, my brain was so frazzled that I struggled to see how moving it backwards could help.
I think I'm going to go with IpswichMatt and rt1129's suggestions: practicing basic checkmates and giving ChessTempo a shot instead.
Cheers for all your help & I'll try not to ask too many more crazy questions in the future!
Usually, it's all about coordinating pieces. Making them work together as a team. Knight and bishop, bishop and queen... Often one giving cover to the other. That way, a king can be captured.
Shredderchess.com has a training course you can try.
I'm pretty sure you've got the diagram wrong - either that or it's not a mate in two.
I've just bunged that diagram into Houdini - white has mate in 4, no mate in 2.
But if it's Black to play there are 4 mate in 2 options
Here you go maddog. 25 free ChessMentor courses. Much more useful than what you've been working on.
http://www.chess.com/blog/webmaster/free-chess-mentor-courses
Dag nammit, it doesn't help when the diagram is incorrect... It should have been:
So sorry! I'm definitely going to check out ChessTemp and I'm going to be giving the tactics a shot on here too. Cheers to baddogno and achja for the site suggestions.
And apologies for confusing the heck out of everyone else. :o/
No wonder I'm not remembering patterns, but cheers again!
oh, ok, qxq and wherever the knight goes Nc5 or q a6 is mate
oh, ok, qxq and wherever the knight goes Nc5 or q a6 is mate
After QXQ Nc4 Qa6+ black can put the knight in the way. In that various white has to play Nc5 mate.
Hi everyone! I've signed up to Chess.com because I'm having a huge problem with my lines of thinking...
I haven't played in years, but all of a sudden I have caught the chess bug massively! I've downloaded Lucas Chess to straight training and I've smashed my way through 'Training Mate in One' with no problems at all.
However, I've moved on to 'Training Mate in Two' and I'm completely stumped. I don't even know where to begin. I've sat staring at some of the puzzles for an hour moving the different pieces, and I just can't figure what to do.
Am I missing a key line of thinking? How does everyone else go about solving mate in two (or three, or four)? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :)