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Chess Position Worth Sharing 148!

When accuracy matters, IM Vaishali Rameshbabu plays with extreme precision. You can test your own accuracy with this position from her sixth round win over IM Elisabeth Pähtz. Black (Pähtz) has just played 59… d1=Q. Having promoted to a queen a half move ahead of her opponent, White (Rameshbabu) has a winning advantage but mustContinue reading “Chess Position Worth Sharing 148!”

Chess Position Worth Sharing 139

Mentally visualizing possible chess positions while calculating accurately is an essential skill for chess players to possess. Since, the ultimate goal in chess is to checkmate, it therefore makes sense to incorporate checkmating puzzles into chess visualization training. A good training puzzle for this purpose should challenge the solver’s ability to properly visualize the squaresContinue reading “Chess Position Worth Sharing 139”

#Chess Position Worth Sharing 136

Great chess players have a way of making it look easy. However, making it look easy requires a lot of work. For instance, just to get to the feature position in today’s puzzle, Boris Spassky had to spend hours grinding out a winning position. (Not to mention the years of hard work to become anContinue reading “#Chess Position Worth Sharing 136”

#Chess Position Worth Sharing 135

Emmanuel Lasker offered the famous advice, “When you see a good move, look for a better one.” Today’s position easily lends itself to this exercise in chess thought. First, find the obvious good move. Then, try and find the best continuation.

#Chess Position Worth Sharing 133

Tonight I finished a long day of teaching chess by presenting an absolutely superb mating combination played by the first World Chess Champion. A brilliant positional player, particularly in his later years, Wilhelm Steinitz rose to prominence in the mid-nineteenth century as a dangerous attacker in the romantic style of chess that had been popularisedContinue reading “#Chess Position Worth Sharing 133”

#Chess Position Worth Sharing 132

In my last post, I challenged the reader to solve a mate in two which required truly understanding basic move possibilities in order to be solved. Returning to puzzles that test our mastery of the basics is a great way to learn how to play the game at a higher level and especially so whenContinue reading “#Chess Position Worth Sharing 132”

#Chess Position Worth Sharing 131

Similar to how military units such as armour, artillery and cavalry have their own unique roles, each piece in the game of chess has unique movements. In order to solve this mate in 2, you must first truly understand how the pieces can move.

#Chess Position Worth Sharing 130

Some of the most brilliant chess puzzles involve material sacrifice for the sake of the mate. Here however, the sacrifice is not merely needed to mate but in fact to avoid loss. One wrong move, and the outcome is completely out of your hands.

#Chess Position Worth Sharing 129

Part of the beauty of chess is that no one can predict the level of greatness which the two participants might create in any given game. You may not have heard much about the chess game played between Kekhayov and Petrov in 1964 but the magnificent mating combination at the end is definitely noteworthy. ThisContinue reading “#Chess Position Worth Sharing 129”

#Chess Position Worth Sharing 110

A remarkable position occurred after white played 47. Qxg3 in the game Samuel Sevian vs. Sergey Karjakin, FIDE World Cup 2019. Karjakin has only three legal responses as black and each would directly result in a different outcome (a win, a loss or a draw.)

#Chess Position Worth Sharing 108

GM Dmitry Andreiken plays the most beautiful game ending combination of 2018 right before the new year starts! Can you spot black’s brilliant continuation? Black to move and mate in 6! (GM Peter Svidler – GM Dmitry Andreikin, FIDE World Rapid Championship, St Petersburg, 12/27/2018)