2/18/2022 – Are you weary of feverishly watching for novelties in the Najdorf, or following tedious battles over the chessboard? Looking for something different? In the January issue of CHESS Magazine there was a small collection of delightful problems that caught our eye. They were selected and annotated by Graham Phythian. Today we show you the positions without any solutions, which will be supplied in a week. You can however figure them out on your own, with the help of the built-in engines in our replay app.
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CHESS Magazine was established in 1935 by B.H. Wood who ran it for over fifty years. It is published each month by the London Chess Centre and is edited by IM Richard Palliser and Matt Read. The Executive Editor is Malcolm Pein, who organises the London Chess Classic.
CHESS is mailed to subscribers in over 50 countries. You can subscribe from Europe and Asia at a specially discounted rate for first timers here, or from North America here.
These new puzzles were selected and annotated by Graham Phythian, who is a member, librarian and publicity officer of the Chorlton Chess Club, Manchester.
We want you to try and solve these puzzles. As you know you can move the pieces on the diagrams to analyse. In problems 2, 5 and 6 we have enabled the engine, so the diagram will actually defend for Black.
If you want to use the help of an engine in the other puzzles you can proceed to the replay app at the bottom of the page, where you analyse at will. Have fun with these unusual and entertaining problems!
Quiz 1
White, to play, finds a mate in five.
Some readers may recognise the position. But, hey, there's nothing wrong with erudition...
Quiz 2
White to play and mate in three.
The black king is surrounded, but make sure he doesn’t slip through the net.
Quiz 3
White to play and draw
Circus Time! Black has his full force in the field, while White has but a scattered skeleton crew. Those knights look quite frisky though...
Quiz 4
White to play and – what?
White to play and – win!
Quiz 5
White to play and win.
In a tale chock with incident, that fearsome phalanx of pawns deceptively morphs into the walls of a prison cell. --- 1 Qxd5? is inconclusive. White, to play, has a better, if more labyrinthine, line. Indeed, it's White to play and win.
Quiz 6
White to play and win
The Waiting Game. Here is a study in delayed gratification...with a surprise at the end! --- White to play and win.
Quiz 7
White to mate without pawn captures
As Pink Floyd almost sang: "Hey! Quizzer! Leave those pawns alone!" --- White is to play and mate Black in eight moves, but without taking a single black pawn! (Hint: all White's moves are checks.)
Quiz 8
White to play and mate in six, moving only his king!
If you want to experiment with the problems with a chess engine providing countermoves (or advising you on possible continuations) you can make use of our JavaScript replayer. Click on the fan symbol below the board to start the engine.
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White, to play, finds a mate in five. --- Some readers may recognise the
position. But, hey, there's nothing wrong with erudition...
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