I enjoy mating puzzles where the target king is surrounded by open squares. In these puzzles, the appearance of freedom for the target king is only an illusion because, in reality, the open squares surrounding it are not free from the influences of distant pieces.
In tonight’s puzzle, the black king appears to have several escape routes. However, when you visualize all of the squares white’s pieces control, you might be able to spot a mate in 2 solution.
Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California. Chris Torres served as the President of the Torres Chess and Music Academy from 2005-2020 and currently is recognized as a correspondence chess master with the United States Chess Federation. Since 1998 Chris Torres has taught 6 individual national champions as well as led multiple school teams to win national championship titles. In addition, Chris Torres has directed and taught at 10 different schools which have been California State Champions at chess. In 2011 and 2012, several former and current students of Chris Torres have been selected to represent the United States at the World Youth Chess Championships. Mr. Torres’ hobbies include playing classical guitar and getting his students to appear on the national top 100 chess rating lists. View more posts
Nf5 is the move. If N takes Q mates at d5. If king takes then Q mates at E6. If king moves to E5 then QE6. If king moves to f3 then Qe2. If king moves to d3 then Qc2. If nd5 then qd5 mates….
Nice composure