Tactics test – Find the Winning Moves

by ChessBase
2/17/2017 – The monthly British magazine CHESS has been going strong for over eighty years. It is currently published by the Chess & Bridge Ltd., London, and brings its readership all the news from the UK – but also from the rest of the world. It also has interesting sections, like three pages of tactical puzzles taken from games of various recent events. Here's a selection of these puzzles, presented on our interactive JavaScript board – an orgy of tactics.
The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.

Find the Winning Moves

Test your tactical ability with these positions grouped in rough order of difficulty. The games come from various recent events, not least the 4NCL and London Chess Classic. Don’t forget that whilst sometimes the key move will force mate or the win of material, other times it will just win a pawn.

Note that in the JavaScript "Living diagrams" below you can move the pieces on the board, to try out possible solutions. The arrow keys take you backwards and forwards through the moves you have entered. In the solutions replayer at the bottom of the page – please try not to peek until you have actually tried to solve the puzzles yourself – you can actually analyse each position with an engine running. It will answer your "But-why-not..." questions very effectively.

Warm-up Puzzles

 
J.Hector-A.Gupta, London 2016, White to Play
 
M.Bauer-P.Gayson, Marianske Lazne 2016, Black to Play
 
J.Cox-D.Guthrie, 4NCL, Mortimer 2016, White to Play
 
D.McCarthy-M.Smart, Mortimer 2016, Black to Play

Intermediate Puzzles for the Club Player

 
A.Naiditsch-C.Jeitz, European Club Cup, Novi Sad 2016, White to Play
 
V.Topalov-V.Anand, London 2016, Black to Play
 
D.Komarov-A.Fier, Tehran 2016, White to Play
 
D.Bocharov-E.Tomashevsky, Russian Championship, Novosibirsk 2016, Black to Play

Harder Puzzles for the Club Player

 
N.Eliet-E.Rozentalis, Belgian League 2016, Black to Play
 
D.Spisla-M.Hesse, Korbach 2016, Black to Play and Draw
 
A.Ormsby-R.Cowan, Wakefield 2016, White to Play
 
J.Hawkins-A.Compton, London 2016 White to Play

There are many more tactical positions to solve in the magazine

Solutions

On our JavaScript board below you can move pieces to analyse, and even start an engine to help you. You can maximize the replayer, auto-play, flip the board and even change the piece style in the bar below the board. At the bottom of the notation window on the right there are buttons for editing (delete, promote, cut lines, unannotate, undo, redo) save, play out the position against Fritz and even embed our JavaScript replayer on your web site or blog. Hovering the mouse over any button will show you its function.

New ...
Open...
Share...
Layout...
Flip Board
Settings
MoveNResultEloPlayers
Position not in LiveBook
1.Rxf8+! It's mate with 1.Rxf8+ Kxf8 2.Rd8# . 1–0
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
  • Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
  • Create an account to access the games cloud.
WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Hector,J-Gupta,A-1–02016London Classic Open
Bauer,M-Gayson,P-0–12016Marianske Lazne
Cox,J-Guthrie,D-1–020164NCL: Barbican 1-Kings Head
McCarthy,D-Smart,M-0–120164NCL: Bradford Knights A-Guildford 3
Naiditsch,A-Jeitz,C-1–02016European Club Cup, Novi Sad
Topalov,V-Anand,V-0–12016London Chess Classic
Komarov,D-Fier,A-2016Tehran
Bocharov,D-Tomashevsky,E-0–12016Russian Championship, Novosibirsk
Eliet,N-Rozentalis,E-0–12016Belgian League
Spisla,D-Hesse,M-½–½2016Korbach
Ormsby,A-Cowan,R-20164NCL: Manx Liberty-Jorvik
Hawkins,J-Compton,A-1–02016London Classic Open

The above tactical puzzles (and many more) are in the February 2017 issue of the British magazine CHESS

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.

Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register

We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.