Can you solve these puzzles?

by Frederic Friedel
8/27/2024 – Take a look at this position. Looks simple enough – just five pieces on the board. But we are asked to find a clear and forced win for White. That requires some unusually subtle strategic moves. Try and solve it, and two other similarly clever problems, which you are sure to find pleasing. Full video explanations will follow in a week.

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Three fascinating chess problems

These are a challenge for you to solve. You know you can move the pieces on the diagrams below – in order to analyse. But we have switched off the diagram engines, so you do not get the solution with a single button click.

Black will do everything he can to trade his rook for the white pawn. The position looks fairly simple, but you may discover that Black has plenty of defensive resources. You need to work them all out and find the unrefutable win for White.

This simple-looking endgame position is actually mind-bogglingly complex. With equal material the game seems to be headed to a draw, and Black has the additional advantage of being able to clear the path for his pawn with a check (...Bg6+), something White cannot do. If you are able to find the stunning first move White must play to secure the win, then congratulations are due. But even if you find it, you need to work out the strategy against the most resilient black defence. To do so requires equally stunning play by White.

This looks like an easy win for White: the bishop moves to d6 to b7 and captures both black pawns. So why is this not a win, and how must White proceed to actually triumph? You probably suspect it: opposition plays an important role in working out the win. 

The video solutions to these puzzles will be provided in a week. That is the time you have to try to work everything out on your own. Chapeau, if you succeed! We suppose it is clear that you must not post any solutions in the feedback below. Just tell us how easy or hard you found the puzzles, how long it took you to solve them.

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Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.
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Video

60m English A solid scandinavian surprise

On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!

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Michael Jones Michael Jones 17 minutes ago
I think I've solved the first one, and if I'm right it really is a beautiful puzzle. It took a few unsuccessful attempts before I hit on (hopefully) the correct first move. Still working on the others.
Frederic Frederic 3 hours ago
@arzi: I said "We suppose it is clear that you must not post any solutions in the feedback below." I am taking down your post, so others can have fun with the puzzles.
Frederic Frederic 10 hours ago
Click the little Notation button (second from right, below the board), Alghearch, and you get the full, clickable notation, with variations you have tried. Is that what you were looking for? Tell us what we need to add or modify.
Aighearach Aighearach 8/27/2024 09:00
The javascript has a bug; when you go backwards and make a new move, the arrow keys only show the first line ever input. So you try one thing, it doesn't work, you start over and try something else that does work. Then you try to reply the solution, but no; it is gone. Only the first incorrect line can be replayed.

Probably it was pasted from a regular board where you would need to "promote" the new line. But here, that isn't possible, so it should instead just replay the last line input.
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