10/6/2017 – Test your tactical ability with these positions grouped in rough order of difficulty. The games come from various recent events, not least the British Championship and the Grand Chess Tour. 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. Take your time analysing the positions, on our news page, assisted by a JavaScript chess engine.

10/6/2017 – After 32.Rg3 (diagram) White's second rook has targeted an enemy knight. Not looking good for Black, right? But he still has an ace up his sleeve: 32...Rxf1+ 33.Kxf1 Ra8 with the threat 34...Ra1+! You are not going to change fronts now, are you?

9/29/2017 – Following 24.e5 Bc5+ 25.Kh1 in the diagram, the draught in White's king position becomes a hurricane. Black wins on the spot. Can you see how — or maybe even remember this spectacular game played 25 years ago?

9/22/2017 – In the diagram position both white rooks are skewered. A counterattack against the queen h6 might be the saving idea, but then again there are pin motifs in the g-file. What do you think - will White finally be able to save his skin?

9/15/2017 – 20...Bxg2 21.Kxg2 Qxd4 in the diagram position initiates a long sequence of moves. What do you think, will Black get the advantage or will White end up on top? Much to calculate for you, but I hope also much fun on the way!

9/12/2017 – The Tactics app in the ChessBase Account suite is a wonderful tool that allows one to work on tactics and calculation skill while having it adapt the difficulty to the player. The snag is when you are sure you have the solution, but are told it is wrong. In this tutorial, you will learn how to have the engine analyse your wrong moves, to learn why they failed.

9/8/2017 – Following 22.exf6! Rxe2 in the diagram position it's White to play and win. His first three moves may still be reasonably obvious, but then things get tricky. By the way, Vishy Anand calculated no more than 5 minutes here, reeling off the rest of his moves virtually a tempo. Enjoy!

9/1/2017 – Playing 24.Nf3-g5 (diagram), White not only has parried the mate threat 24...Qxg2++ but also attacked the queen g3 (Rc3!). Not a bad one, right? Yet Black kept his nerves and found a cool winning continuation which actually was one of two alternatives. What would you have played?

8/25/2017 – In the middle 1970s/early 1980s British television used to stage the tournament "The Master Game" around Christmas, with the participants (great names!) accompanying their games with spoken commentaries - absolutely thrilling for me as a spectator! What do you guess Black thought (and played!) in the diagram position?

8/18/2017 – With his pawn on h6 the diagram position would be absolutely fine for Black. The way things are, however, White has a splendid sequence to exploit the enemy back rank weakness. Six moves spot-on - can you do it like him?

8/11/2017 – In the diagram postion Black seems to be dead lost in view of the white threats 34.Rg8 and 34.Qf5+. And yet there is a way for him to save himself - all he has to do is trade queens. But how can that be achieved? More...

8/7/2017 – Test your tactical ability with these positions grouped in rough order of difficulty. The games come from various recent events, not least the opening Grand Chess Tour events in Paris and Leuven. 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. Take your time analysing the positions, on our news page, assisted by a built-in chess engine.

8/4/2017 – In the diagram position Black has just attacked the white queen in the c-file with 26...Nc4-e5, initiating a forced sequence of captures which finally lead to... well, that's for you to work out!

7/28/2017 – It's obvious that in the diagram position White cannot really castle short (black bishop a7!). So a queen move should be played. 16.Qd3 or 16.Qe4 - which of these two passes your stress test?

7/21/2017 – A murky position: in order to win, White must tackle the enemy king without disregarding the potential threats of Black's queen + knight tandem. How would you start his attack?

7/14/2017 – The only thing one might dislike in Black's position in the diagram is the unprotected bishop a3, while his king seems reasonably safe. But just two knight moves — 21.Ng5!? Nf5? — and it's already over: White gets a decisive attack, with the innocent looking rook d1 being the possible match-winner. Ready for a workout?

7/7/2017 – The diagram shows a standard position from the London System, in which 12....Ne4 by Black would seem like a most natural move. Caution! This move makes the game razor-sharp, and only six moves later one side will resign. Which one? ...

6/30/2017 – In the diagram position, 35.Nc7+ Kf6 36.Nxe8+ nets a whole rook for White, and on top of that with check. Who could ask for more? I do - I want to see how you continue following 36...Kg6 then!

6/23/2017 – Tactical details can play an important role when determining the best move. In the diagram position White's knight is hanging while Black's rook threatens to invade on d2. 26.Nc4 or 26.Nc6 - what would be your choice?

6/16/2017 – Missing a forced mate? For the sophisticated chess player definitely a no-go! In the diagram position White is a full rook up and could parry the enemy threats 38.Bb5. But of course he can do much better. How?

6/9/2017 – In the diagram White can win if he finds the right way to parry Black's mate threat ...Qh1++. The game continuation 36.Qc1 did not hit the bull's eye. Can you do better? Unleash your creativity!

6/2/2017 – 19.d6! Bxd6 in the diagram drags the bishop into the focus of the major pieces in the d-file, 20.Bxf6! gxf6 rips open the king's position, and then all White needs is... power move no. 3 which forces Black to resign. Have you spotted it already?

5/27/2017 – The unforgettable Viktor Kupreichik passed away a few days ago at the age of 68, and with him one of the greatest creative minds in chess passed away as well. Alex Yermolinsky readily admits he was one of his fans from an early age, and later had the chance to face him over the board. Instead of trying to neutralize Kupreichik's wild play, he invited it, leading to a game he explains "is so insane I can't even annotate it properly." Have fun!

5/26/2017 – Sometimes a single well-placed piece can suffice to hold a game - like for example Black's magnificent knight in the diagram position. Yet here the case is different. White wins thanks to his space advantage on the kingside, marked by pawns on the 5th rank ...