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White to Play
Here is a rough and tumble game from the 19th century. White played the Boden-Kieseritsky Gambit. Black did not defend well and then White overplayed his hand with his 7th move, but came back with a great 8th move. Your challenge is to find that 8th move and the continutation. The game started out with: 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nxc3 5....
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Based on a brilliant win by Dr. Hartlaub in 1906.
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Care to guess which White soldier will deliver the mate?
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Here’s an attacking position coming out of the Vienna Game. How would you proceed?
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This is a win with one decisive move at the outset that is best.
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Today is a special presentation in that there's no mate in 3 or 4 puzzle. This is a middle game puzzle that challenges you to find a plan. It comes from my book, Openings for Amateurs--Next Steps in the chapter on various Isolated Queen Pawn attacks. If you want to be better than average, it's a concept you have to learn. You're going to be ...
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Here is another classic position emphasizing the power of doubled rooks on the h-file. The first question probably is “That’s a great attacking position. How do I get there?” Here’s how Kurt Richter did it in 1930: Richter,Kurt Paul - Abramavicius,Leonhard [C13] Olympiad–1930 Hamburg
1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bg5 e6 4.e4 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6...
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Since we started this column in 2006, there have been 2700 puzzles put up here. It was always my hope that they would be either instructional or entertaining or challenging or all three. However, the encompassing desire was that they would make the reader a better player who could take the lessons learned and their concepts into one’s own ...
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The material in “points” may be equal, but the position isn’t as White has the move.
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This is a great puzzle with the rook vs. bishop struggle. The key first move may surprise you.
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There’s only one first move that wins. It’s one of the most important K+P endgames you can study.
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Here’s a basic king and pawn ending you should know.
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This is one of my favorite endgames to give students because even strong players have taken a while to solve this. It’s actually pretty simple if you know one handy endgame principle. It’s White to Play and Draw.
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Rook and pawn endings require planning and often subtle maneuvering. This position is no different. Can you see it all the way to the end? In a tournament game you would have to.
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It’s the New Year! Of course, the best chess new year’s resolution you can make is to do the one thing chess players don’t really do very much, but should: study endgames!! We’re going to do king and pawn endings on our first submission of the week, rook and pawn endings the second submission of the week and a mixed bag for the third ...
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Holiday Chess School #18! Our last holiday puzzle ends with an opening trap won by Leonhardt back in 1912. He followed rule number one!
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Holiday Chess School #17! White has just given up his queen that used to be on a4 until the opposing queen snatched it. However, White can still win all his material back and more. It’s a wonderful lesson on how to take advantage of an uncastled king.
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Holiday Chess School #16! Not much to work with, so this should be a bit easier than it looks.
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