Daily Puzzle May 20, 2026

This is for non-experts who want to discuss the puzzle, and how they are thinking about it, BEFORE solving it. (The site won't let us into the daily forum without attempting a solution.)

Here is what I am seeing on the May 20, 2026 puzzle, which I cannot seem to solve for the life of me:

It looks like a mate should be available. 

There is a threat against the queen, especially if black moves Rd1. 

White has 8 possible rook moves, not one of which seems to offer anything. 

Nor does the pawn move, although there is an interesting dynamic happening between the two a-file rooks.

The bishop could take the rook on a8. That's the obvious move, but loses to Rd1. 

So, let's look at Queen moves. Moving to the A-file looks useless. 

I've tried to figure out if there is a trick to moving the Q to b6, b7 or b8, but if there is, I am not seeing it. 

Maybe Qxd4. 

Then Queen takes back on d4, then white has to protect the bishop before time to take the rook.

Qc2 and Qd2. Gets me nothing. 

Let's consider pawn moves.

1. e3 is the most obvious candidate. This forces the rook to move and makes the queen vulnerable. But, again, Rd1 lets black take whites queen first.

In a game, I might play Qc1 hoping to keep an eye on the backrank mate.

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I am seeing absolutely nothing on this puzzle. So I need to make my guess soon. I am curious how others thought about this one (try to avoid just posting spoilers). 

My official guess will be

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.

.

.

.

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Qb8

And of course I am wrong.

WHAT AM I NOT SEEING ON THIS PUZZLE?

This is a terrible puzzle.

Hello

You are seeing it but were maybe too quick to discard an option. It’s hard to avoid giving it away but you have listed the solution in your initial post.

nice 

Burbak