Hmm.
1. About 2-3 minutes.
2. No idea.
3. I would definitely go for the obvious material gain. Without giving anything away I'd only have looked for this in a puzzle, though somebody like pfren would probably have noticed it in a game.
Do You See Checkmate?
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Nov 24, 2012
0
#3
Think about the pressure the queen is exerting on d8 and get rid of the defender, the a8 rook
I believe I see a mate in three.
I see what it's asking for, and I've seen it on tactics trainer, it was over 2000 I think, but it's not a forced mate which is why you can't see it.
Stop thinking about how many times a square is defended and start thinking about how the board looks if the captures are made.
Am I wrong about the mate in three? Yes, I see I am. Piss.
Yeah, but you win so much material it may as well be a mate.
I think my earlier point is important by the way. You will never be good at tactics if you stop your tactics short saying 'that square isn't safe to put a piece on' or 'I can't play that move, it leaves my bishop undefended'.
1. 7 minutes. (After I solved it I recognized it, this one has given me trouble in the past). In a live game I don't believe I would be looking for mate either. Especially because Qf4 with a4 looks easily winning.
2. No idea, I don't use TT. Chesstempo I'd guess 1600? 1700 ? I'm not sure. I said this gave me trouble in the past, so maybe others find it easier than I do.
3. "To merit further time calculating" I'm not sure what you mean. My answer would be because it's a puzzle I look for very forcing moves first, even if they look crazy. (If you get two moves in a row and it's mate, it's a threat) For example I very briefly looked at Qg7 hah :p (Is it mate? Qg7 and for my 2nd move Qxg8... hmm, nope, it's not mate). If it has a threat, see if it works is what I do.
If you mean in general I notice e7, d8, f8, and c7. How can I bring my rooks, queen, and bishop in to mate. Does the knight help? Then I look at knight moves too. This is probably too general that's why I mention forcing stuff 
Nov 24, 2012
0
#11
Spotted the answer immediately because I've seen this position before.
Scottrf wrote:
I see what it's asking for, and I've seen it on tactics trainer, it was over 2000 I think, but it's not a forced mate which is why you can't see it.
Stop thinking about how many times a square is defended and start thinking about how the board looks if the captures are made.
But like you said, when you see the solution, you know it's the solution because to avoid mate you'd win 100 points of material :p
Warning: SPOILER
As soon as I see the bishop and queen lining up to give mate like that I'm thinking 'deflection'. How can I move the queen away from defence of the e7 square?
Rc8 is the obvious move, pinning the queen to the king and threatening mate in 1 with Qe7, removing the queens defence of the square.
How can black respond? Bxd8 but then Qxd8 is mate in one.
Leaves Rxd8, after white recaptures Rxd8, Qxd8 is impossible because of Qe7#, so black plays Kd7 and loses the queen for nothing.
Nice positionand it is very deep as well. At least 2-3 of the moves for either side to gain a full point here would get past I am certain many in the 1600-1800 range though perhaps nearer to the 2000 range, these ideas are more cohesive. As said though before, very nice though very tough to crack as well.
Actually that's useful to me Scottrf. This puzzle has a blindspot for me somehow, and to solve it I just happened to see it. I know your explanation is quite simple, but somehow I didn't go about the puzzle logically I guess.
Nov 24, 2012
0
#16
1. About 30 seconds
2. No idea
3. Not sure what that meant. I looked at what materials i had to checkmate, then i looked at black's defense set up, and then i looked at what pieces i had to break up black's defense.
About 2 min.. 3 move mate, not your daily chess puzzle.
Nov 24, 2012
0
#18
1. about 1 min
2. 1500+
3. open files, pins, overloaded pieces.
In positions like this, it is worth to try and find a win: just try random sacs
Nov 24, 2012
0
#19
1. It took me maybe 6 or 7 min.
2.Dont know for sure. 1600-1800 ?
3. the thing i look for first is checks.
4. hint. revisit your first observation. the mate in 3 lies within.
I've stared at this puzzle for a long time, and still can't see checkmate. If this were my game and I had White, I wouldn't think to look for checkmate, that's for sure. Black's defences look just fine.
Anyway, please DON'T post the answer. I still want to figure it out, and I figure that so would others. This is what I would like to see in the posts that follow. Thank you.
1. The time it took you to solve this puzzle.
2. An estimate of rating level for this puzzle. It's not 1000, because most of those TT puzzles are easy for me to solve.
3. The things you look for in a position to merit further time on the clock for calculating checkmate, or the threat of checkmate.
This puzzle was taken from 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate by Fred Reinfeld.
1. The first thing I saw was the open c-file, with White's doubled rooks. However, c8 is defended three times. Also, c7 is defended twice. So, playing Rc8 or Rc7 first would be losing for White.
2. I see a pawn on e5, taking away the escape squares of d6 and f6 for Black's king.
3. I see light square complex of Black's pawns on light squares -d5, e6, f7, g6 and h5 - with White's really good dark squared bishop on g5, and after a queen trade, Bg5 can go to Bg6, tightening the noose on Black's king.
4. I see White's knight hopping from g3 to f5+ (if Black's king is forced to e7) as losing because Black defends f5 with pawns at e6 and g6.
What I don't see is checkmate! Nor would I look for one, especially if I were playing my 15 10 Live Standard Chess.