Positional Puzzles

A few puzzles from my own games. Take your time, some are harder than others. You won't be able to fluke a "likely looking" Queen sacrifice like you might be able to on an online tactics trainer, so I advise you to carefully consider all of the imbalances in each position. If someone gets one or more right and explains how they got to the solution/s I'll send them a trophy. Or it's possible you may improve on some of my solutions as I'm no Master..

In the first puzzle, Bxf6 without hesitation... hardly a puzzle, your inactive Bishop trades for his active N (his best posted piece really). He's left with a bad bishop,  and you with a beautifully posted N. Plus his N was his best defender against your attack along the open h-file... And his N was attacking your rook, supporting the attack against e3, jeez, kill the N!... is there anything else to consider? Am I missing something?

lol Yes, that's all there is to it. As I said, some are harder than others. At least I hope it would have forced a beginner or early intermediate player to look objectively at the position instead of being like "Bishops are better than Knights, so I'll take with my Knight". I'd give you a trophy, but somehow I don't think it would be going right at the top of your mantlepiece. 

EDIT: Actually, since an "attack on e3" was never going to be a realistic goal even if his Knight were to stay on f5 I don't think you got the logic entirely right..

my take on the first diagram

Even weak players i think would realize that the light squared bishop is bad.

I didn't even read most of your analysis, yet I'm very sure that you were following the wrong thought process just by looking as far 2.e6?! How? It's quite simple: After the initial exchange White has a totally dominant position where Black has little to no meaningful counter-play. Therefore White should make the simplest winning moves which lead to the most clear cut advantage. If Black had simply retreated his Bishop after 2.Bc8 although White is still better the position is more unclear. White can't seem to force anything clear cut. For instance: 3. Nxf5 wins after gxf5 4.Qh5! when Qxe3+ doesn't help Black as he can only keep checking White for so long, however after 3.Bxe6 instead again White doesn't have much.. Here is how I continued instead of playing e6: 

Still, 2 2200+ players not fully understanding the position shows it may not be a mind-numbingly simple puzzle for weak players. Especially since many repeatedly play on auto-pilot without taking into account hardly any of the needs of the position. I don't think many would even bother to consciously consider whether a Bishop is bad or not, even if they had the ability to..

"If Black had simply retreated his Bishop after 2.Bc8 although White is still better the position is more unclear. White can't seem to force anything clear cut."- Nuclearturkey

i beg to disagree to you.

And what about after 4.Kg8? What has White gained to compensate losing his monstrous e5 pawn and having given Black possible counter-play down the e-file?

Shoot it.

"And what about after 4.Kg8? What has White gained to compensate losing his monstrous e5 pawn and having given Black possible counter-play down the e-file?" -Nuclearturkey

black has no counter attack! white has a strong attack as exchange for his e5-pawn!

10. Qc7#, of course.

There's no need to open up the position even if it does give you a strong attack. By something like the simple Rf3 instead of e6 White has either a easy endgame or a comfortable massive advantage if Black decides to avoid the exchange of both Rooks by running his King to the centre. Of course White's e-pawn weakness probably won't be significant, but why give Black anything like that? Anyone who has heard Nimzowitsch's advise that in a superior position one must choose the most simple winning idea which leaves you with as little chance as possible to slip up will know what I'm talking about here. But I can't see that I'm going to convince you..

Not really. Do you want a hint?

Actually, since an "attack on e3" was never going to be a realistic goal even if his Knight were to stay on f5 I don't think you got the logic entirely right actually..

All I was saying was that on top of all that other stuff the N hits e3 (intersecting with his Queen who also is aiming at e3) -- it's just another reason (as if we didn't already have all the reasons we needed) to kill the N.  e3 is absolutely a vulnerability in the White camp, with both the Queen and the N hitting it -- but of course it isn't a realistic goal, black's only realistic goal is to learn from this loss , because after you exchange his N he is IMO completely postionally lost. What's the computer eval on that position, I'm curious to know.

I don't know, I haven't analyzed it with a computer. I only rely on computers to pick out tactical errors, which I'm sure I didn't make in that game. I guess it could be a potential long-term weakness if his Knight was left. The puzzle was really more about which piece to take with, rather than whether to take..

I'll give the whole game with annotations once the other puzzle from the same game has been solved..

Hey nuclearturkey, so when are you going to try to establish a rating for yourself here?  I can't wait to see how awesome you will be.