ArcaMax

Mate in Four! Have fun!

This position demonstrates an ideal attacking position out of the Dutch Defense. White is ready to defend with Bf3, so Black must anticipate that.

One of the nice things about king and pawn puzzles is that you can count them out. What does a straight pawn race starting out with 1.f5 tell you?

This one looks easy, but be careful!

How do you beat a world champion? Former champ Kramnik ran afoul of Saleh at the Airthings Masters in 2023. How was he finished off?

I ran across this puzzle this morning and realized that I don’t think I’ve ever used this old classic. Black is threatening to queen a pawn and you, as White, want to checkmate Black. It’s a very logical solution and yet quite creative.

White has to deal with an obvious threat: Black queening the c-pawn, so what do you do?

Another opening trap you should know. This is from Inglis-Hickmott, UK, 2001.The game began with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6 4.d4 Bg4 5.dxe5 Nxe5 See Diagram

Here’s a game in the really sharp Schliemann Defense to the Ruy Lopez. Now you may see the first move, but be very careful on your follow ups. It started this way--1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0–0 fxe4 6.Nxe5 Nf6 7.d3 Bd6 8.Nc4 See Diagram.

Black can opt to lose material and then take a longer time to avoid mate, but what’s the straight-out mating line here?

Here is a rough and tumble game from the 19th century. White played the Boden-Kieseritsky Gambit. Black did not defend well and then White overplayed his hand with his 7th move, but came back with a great 8th move. Your challenge is to find that 8th move and the continutation. The game started out with: 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nxc3 5....

Based on a brilliant win by Dr. Hartlaub in 1906.

Care to guess which White soldier will deliver the mate?

Here’s an attacking position coming out of the Vienna Game. How would you proceed?

This is a win with one decisive move at the outset that is best.

Today is a special presentation in that there's no mate in 3 or 4 puzzle. This is a middle game puzzle that challenges you to find a plan. It comes from my book, Openings for Amateurs--Next Steps in the chapter on various Isolated Queen Pawn attacks. If you want to be better than average, it's a concept you have to learn. You're going to be ...

Here is another classic position emphasizing the power of doubled rooks on the h-file. The first question probably is “That’s a great attacking position. How do I get there?” Here’s how Kurt Richter did it in 1930: Richter,Kurt Paul - Abramavicius,Leonhard [C13] Olympiad–1930 Hamburg

1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bg5 e6 4.e4 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6...

Since we started this column in 2006, there have been 2700 puzzles put up here. It was always my hope that they would be either instructional or entertaining or challenging or all three. However, the encompassing desire was that they would make the reader a better player who could take the lessons learned and their concepts into one’s own ...

The material in “points” may be equal, but the position isn’t as White has the move.

This is a great puzzle with the rook vs. bishop struggle. The key first move may surprise you.