Okay, I solved the first three and I think I solved the fourth.
The last one though... you weren't kidding when you called it crazy-tough!
I've been looking at it for ten minutes and I'm still not seeing it. Anyone else?
5 cool puzzles I extracted from my own tournament games
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Ah ah, what I like most about the fifth is that black looks completely lost! In the actual game I didn't find the only winning combination and lost the game quickly. A friend of mine who is FIDE Master was impressed about that one.
Wow, the last one is really impressive! And I figured it out by accident... :-D
Spoilers in white: I moved the pawn because I wanted to bring my bishop and then realised how annoying it is on f3 :) the rest was still hard but with analysis board do-able.
I don't believe I would ever find it, how did you spot it?
The fourth one is by far the toughest - the only thing I have been able to find is bc7 followed by Rxa7 but black has qa6 which seems to work for him. As for the last one it took me a total of 5 seconds.
Congrats for the last one - some people find it fast, some never do ;-)
About the fourth one, JMB2010: in the line that you mention with Qa6, I think it is a case where the queen is more powerful than the 2 uncoordinated rooks. At the end of the line the white queen goes to f7, highlighting how misplaced black's pieces are - don't you think?
Naipro wrote:
I don't believe I would ever find it, how did you spot it?
Sorry Naipro, I almost forgot to answer you. I am afraid I didn't spot the combination: my computer did :-(
I went through all my tournament games with my computer in order to find material for my daily newsletter. It showed me many missed opportunities! The move you found in that position is actually something you might "try" in a real game without calculating the end outcome... and discover later that it won the game! You don't have much to lose anyway.
Hi all,
I wanted to share with you a few puzzles from the Amateur Chess Tactics Newsletter I publish every day. It features at least one puzzle per day extracted from amateur tournament games. I hope you don't mind that I just pasted the images I had prepared for reddit instead of the full problem + solution? Anyway I think it's better for everyone to really give a try at finding the solutions and debate them below.
All the images are clickable and will redirect you to the original blog post.
1. Mate in 3 for white. - the kind of puzzles I post on Mondays, because that's easy tactic day.
2. Mate in 2 for Black. I was proud when I got the opportunity to play this cool checkmate! I even put this diagram in the header of my blog.
3. Black to move and win. This is extracted from a game my opponent won with a nice tactical touch!
4. White to move and win. This one is a bit tougher - I posted it last Saturday (I try to build up the difficulty during the week).
5. Black to move and win. This one is kind of crazy-tough, which is why I posted it on a Sunday! If you want to solve it, I suggest you use a physical chess board and move the pieces. Once you find the first move, you should be able to find the whole solution!
If you enjoy this kind of puzzles, do consider subscribing to the daily Amateur Chess Tactics Newsletter!