Puzzle solutions

by ChessBase
9/2/2024 – Last week we showed you three positions, miniatures with five or six pieces that looked simple enough. But finding a a clear and forced win was anything but trivial – you needed to work out some unusually subtle strategy to solve them. Today we present the solutions, in the form of videos by Gauri Shankar, chess trainer from Chicago, in his unique explanatory style.

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Here are the solutions to last week's puzzles

And here the full solutions in our PGN replayer. 

About the author

Gauri Shankar is a FIDE Master, originally from India, who moved to the United States when he was ten years old. He has nine International Master norms, and is seeking to cross the 2400 Elo mark to get his title. He works as a chess trainer in Chicago, where he currently resides.

Gauri's decade long experience teaching chess to thousands of children has helped him become a popular online chess content creator, making entertaining and educational videos on Twitch, Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok.

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Video

60m English The Elephant Gambit

The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

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Frederic Frederic 1 hour ago
@satman: It is a possibly vain attempt to invite people casually interested in unusual areas of chess to give it a try. "Here's a puzzle that is bound to baffle" is more inviting than "Today we present an study composed by the Georgian endgame experts Revas Tavariani and D. Matsonashvili" which for some beginners casual can be translated to "Go away, you are just an amateur."
satman satman 6 hours ago
Very nice, but please stop calling then 'puzzles' - they're endgame studies.
genius2812 genius2812 9/3/2024 06:40
In Gauri Shankar's solutions, I noticed that the solution of final position in Hasek is wrong. After 11..Ka7!? 12.b6?? Ka8 leads to stalemate.
Correct solution is 12.Kc7! Ka8 13.Kb6 (Kc8 or Kc6 also leads to a win) Kb8 14.Ka6 Ka8 15.b6 Kb8 16.b7 Kc7 17.Ka7 wins. The pawn promotes.

Regards,
Anil K. Anand
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