A special thank you to the readers who emailed us to encourage the sort of approach we used last time out. Here's another one, a bit more challenging. I'd like to have you write down what you think the "candidate moves" are. Pick four moves that you think could be played. Then, pick the one that is best. That's what chess players all over this country do every weekend in tournaments. You don't have to leave the house! Don't forget to write down why you rejected some moves and eventually picked the move you went with.

Solution:

The game(Bachmann-Kunstmaann, 1899 ) started out in Wild West style with: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 Nxe4 5.d5 Ne7 6.Nxe5 Ng6 7.Bd3 Nxf2 (See Diagram)

One of the great tips of chess is this: Before you move, look at all checks and captures for your opponent and you. Black is threatening both your queen and rook with his knight. He's also threatening to take your knight on e5. You can take both his knights as well. It can get confusing! There is one other tip: if your opponent hasn't castled, his f2 or f7, depending on whether White or Black, is very vulnerable because the king can be chased out where it can be attacked.

What candidate moves did you pick? Plausible ones were 8.Kxf2, 8.Qe2, 8.Qf3 and 8.Bxg6, which was the actual winning move. Good for you if you picked these, especially Bxg6. That's a big first step.

For those of you who picked 8.Bxg6, did you find that because you saw both the threat to f7 and the avalanche of checks that chased the Black king into the open? If you did, great job! If not, our usual advice follows: play through the lines below and then try to imagine them as you look at the diagram above.

8.Bxg6 [The alternatives 8.Qe2 Nxd3+ 9.Nxd3+ Qe7; 8.Qf3 Nxe5; 8.Kxf2 Bc5+ 9.Be3 Bxe3+ 10.Kxe3 Nxe5 are all bad for black ] 8...Nxd1 [8...hxg6 9.Qe2 Nxh1 10.Nc6+ wins the queen] 9.Bxf7+ Ke7 10.Bg5+ Kd6 11.Nc4+ Kc5 12.Nba3 Nxb2 [12...Nxc3 13.Bxd8 b5 14.bxc3 bxc4 15.0–0 wins] 13.Be3#

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