Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Puzzles
Solving a chess puzzles is not exactly like playing a move or a sequence of moves in a game. A game of chess is like a story with beginning and end. A puzzle is only a very short sequence of that story.
First information needed is whose turn it is. Second, it’s also helpful to know the material balance. When playing a game, players are usually aware of material count but in a puzzle the material balance gives a first indication of some advantage. Third, puzzles have solution. It means, the goal is either delivering checkmate, winning a decisive amount of material, achieving positional advantage or finding a defensive maneuver eventually finishing in stalemate.
In general, when working on a puzzle, it is recommended to focus on forced moves. They are checks, captures and threats.
Because directly attacking the king is the most forcing move, it is recommended to look initially for any possible checks.
Checkmate may end the game, but if we cannot find it in the first move and there isn’t any direct check, the second most forcing type of moves are captures. They can help in gaining a decisive advantage.
Checks and captures can be lethal moves in solving puzzles. But if we cannot play them, threats are the third type of forcing moves. The most common threats are a combination of the previous forcing moves—threatening checkmate or winning material. Remember: a threat is a forcing move not yet realized!
Carefully and consistently considering checks, captures, and threats will help in making progress. However, there are always obstacles that hinder the process. The solution is always visualization and a logical reasoning. Both are techniques that any player can apply.
In the following puzzle, both sides have advanced pawns. But it’s White’s turn. Try to solve it. Remember: both White’s and Black’s moves respond to a logical reasoning. Solve the puzzle applying visualization and logical argumentation. Good luck!
To date (March, 2025) this puzzle had been attempted on chess.com over 1,700,000 times, with a solving success rate of 0.1%!
Every puzzle is an opportunity to have fun and learn something new about the game.
Puzzles present challenging positions. For solving them we need:
More info about puzzles HERE
Maybe you play chess but are unable to attend a local club. If that is your case, then join our virtual Chess.com club. On our site, we regularly play online tournaments and team matches. More than 1550 members enjoy that chance and new players join every week. We have new tournaments scheduled for the coming months waiting for players! Join now! Additionally, we have a puzzle section and we have recently started to practice the variant of ‘Vote Chess’. Although not very popular, ‘Vote Chess’ is an effective educational tool for learning together.
