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Tag Archives: mate in 3

Chess Position Worth Sharing 146!

“Capablanca’s phenomenal move-searching algorithm in those early years, when he possessed a wonderful ability for calculating variations very rapidly, made him invincible.” – Mikhail Botvinnik

Betcha Can’t Solve This #Chess Puzzle! 65

Some mate-in-3 compositions are much trickier than others. This particular chess puzzle by Erich Ernest Zepler is diabolical!

Chess Position Worth Sharing 143

The 1927 World Championship Match was a fiercely contested clash of chess styles. Jose Raul Capablanca had a straightforward playing style which, combined with his famously precise endgame play, was his recipe for success. Alexander Alekhine, on the other hand, preferred creating complexities and oftentimes employed risky attacks in route to his victories. Capablanca wasContinue reading “Chess Position Worth Sharing 143”

Chess Position Worth Sharing 140

A young fan of this blog enjoyed the last Sam Loyd puzzle I shared (see: Betcha Can’t Solve This #Chess Puzzle 63) but asked if I had a “slightly easier problem by Samuel Loyd.” So, as was requested, this evening I am sharing another Sam Loyd mate in 3 that is much easier to solveContinue reading “Chess Position Worth Sharing 140”

Betcha Can’t Solve This #Chess Puzzle! 63

During the mid-nineteenth century, Samuel Loyd was one of the strongest chess players in the United States. However, his real passion was for the compositional art of chess puzzles, not tournament play. Known as the “Puzzle King”, his book Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles was published in 1914, three years after his death. Below is aContinue reading “Betcha Can’t Solve This #Chess Puzzle! 63”

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”

Winning Chess Moves: Carlsen vs Harestad, 7/23/2003

Future generations of chess enthusiasts will undoubtedly treasure the early games of Magnus Carlsen in the same manner we honor Paul Morphy’s first brilliances. Of course, comparing players from different eras is difficult but there is an argument to be made that Magnus may very well be the greatest chess prodigy ever. For evidence onContinue reading “Winning Chess Moves: Carlsen vs Harestad, 7/23/2003”

Winning Chess Moves: Bronstein vs Geller, 1961

There have been many great chess players over the years, but only a small percentage of them manage to captivate the public imagination and receive considerable mainstream attention at any given time. David Bronstein never became a world champion, but there’s no denying that at the height of his career, he frequently captivated imaginations whileContinue reading “Winning Chess Moves: Bronstein vs Geller, 1961”

#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.

So I was just playing a game of #Chess and then this happened… 5

Black to move and mate in 3.     The complete game is a rather nifty Traxler Counter Attack(Wilkes-Barre) that ended up checkmating white’s Fried Liver dreams in just 13 moves!  

Betcha Can’t Solve This #Chess Puzzle! 17

White to move and mate in 3 (A. Galitskiy, “Chess Journal”, 1900.) For added challenge, imagine that the players switch chairs (i.e. pawns moving in the opposite direction) and solve for mate in three again. Remarkable!