ArcaMax

I played a 5-minute game on the ICC yesterday that made me a bit sad. My opponent played a move that, given his rating, nobody who plays a decent game of chess would play anymore. BUT, there it was! It started out: 1. e4 d6 (the “clever” way of sneaking into the Philidor) 2. d4 Nd7 3. Nf3 e5 4. Bc4 h6?? You would think after hundreds of ...

This finish was created by Aron Nimzovich’s father in Riga, 1899.

An old favorite by Sam Loyd.

Continuing with our elementary “thinking” problems suitable to challenge young players, we thought we would make it a bit tougher for those who have felt “unchallenged.”

Continuing with our elementary “thinking” problems suitable to challenge young players, we continue here with a Horwitz and Kling study where you just need to plot out your knight maneuver to mate.

It’s a mate in four, which we rarely do, but, in this case, it’s actually a good problem even for beginners. It’s not a mystery what Black is going to do, so White has to prepare for that.

The black king is surrounded by his men at arms. Can White break through and mate him?

OK, you have Black on the run. What’s the quickest way to checkmate him?

A composition by J. Krejcik. White has an obvious advantage, but what is the best first move to start the winning process?

A great lesson position! Szabo was White against Milner-Barry in the late 30s and found a great move: 1.Qc3!! You have been given the first move. Now analyze the possible defenses by Black and what you would do to meet them. Szabo had to do that before he chose that move.

A classic mate in three by Shinkman: the first move, the key move, is so simple as to make us all feel silly if we didn’t see it (and I didn’t!).

A nice, simple mate in two to start off the week.

Threatened with mate, Black finds that desperate times call for desperate measures.

Our World Champion, Carlsen, gave an instructive finish in 2009 against Grischuk.

Last time out you had to solve a mate in two with queen and knight and king vs. king. This time it’s the same cast of characters, but it’s a mate in three. The last problem may give you the shadow of a hint.

A real minimalist two-mover for you by “Nemo.”

This is a mate in 6 for which you have the last two moves of the solution, courtesy of our last column. Now, see if you can come up with the whole solution.

This mate in two is actually the last pair of moves in a longer mate in 6 that we will show next. Just thought we would warm you up with this, so next time out you can say you solved a mate in 6!

The first move will be obvious to many of you, but can you see it all the way to mate?

This game was played between Haag and Csiszar in Hungary in 1963, and went this way: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. e3 c6 5. Nc3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. a3 O-O 8. b4 Re8 9. Bb2 dxc4 10. Bxc4 e5 11. O-O-O exd4 12. Rxd4 Qe7 13. Rhd1 Bc7 14. Bb3 a5 15. Ng5 Rf8 16. Rh4 h6 (See Diagram)at which point White came up with a pretty finish.