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December 23, 2003Christmas PlayChess puzzles
The following puzzles are positions from HCL games in which the attacking player has missed the fastest way to finish off his opponent. As you can see the collected positions come from all levels, be it advanced or rookie. If you don’t want to miss the fun, then refrain from using chess engines. Computers are able to solve them in less than a second for most cases.
The first one is easy (I think). White plays and mates in 2. In the game White played 29.Qc6+, so this is not the solution.
It is White’s turn to play (Mate in 2). There are 2 solutions to this problem.
White played 49.Ne4 and just missed a mate in 2.
Can you checkmate the White King in only 3 moves?
This one is a little bit complicated since you have to calculate all variations to make sure that you have found the solution (White mates in 3).
White is in check but Black’s position is helpless. White needs 4 moves to checkmate.
It looks like Black has a material advantage. However, it is White’s turn to play. In 7 moves Black is checkmated. You may think that this is a difficult problem but as soon as you get the idea, you’ll see that Black can only delay the end.
Black has a lot of replies to every White's move but the result cannot change. White wins this game inevitably. I consider this, as a very educative example arising from a position which appeared in a C class game. I am not going to tell you how many moves White needs. As you can see Black is lost, but there is one move that ends the game faster.
Comments
What a nice article - thank you! I have not seen anything of this article before it was published. I consider this a wonderful christmas present (a little early). Don't you think that *you* could write interesting articles yourself? It is really easy. Just send me a note and get your author password and some instructions. Merry christmas to all! Love these! Thanks Michalis. Magnificent and timely present for Christmas. Posted by: PamperedPawn at December 24, 2003 02:25 PMThanks, you put here a wonderfull enigma. Especially because I'm in it. ;-). Thanks, you put here a wonderfull enigma. Especially because I'm in it. ;-). Thanks, you put here a wonderfull enigma. Especially because I'm in it. ;-). Thanks, you put here a wonderfull enigma. Especially because I'm in it. ;-). I think this is a fabulous way to make use of the game archives. Thanks very much! Posted by: Wee_Doogie at December 26, 2003 01:05 AMVery intersting games. I really enjoyed playing all the games.
Thanks! I had to look at my game once more. In this game, I was lucky since aadje at one point played too fast and then I started to analyse deeply all positions... and, yes, I missed the checkmate in 7 moves. Happy New Year to all chess lovers! And peace for 2004. Salo Posted by: Salo at December 28, 2003 08:52 PM |
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