ArcaMax

This week, we’re looking at some of the fun they used to have in the 19th century with unusual problems. This one is a creative gem by legendary American problemist, William A. Shinkman. It is White to play and HELP Black mate in four moves. That means both sides cooperate to enable Black to produce a checkmate. Here’s a big, but tricky, ...

This week, we’re going to look at some of the fun they used to have in the 19th century with unusual problems. We’re starting with one of the simpler versions. It may look obvious, but isn’t. Be alert!

Our final miniature this week is one between Torre and O’Kelly from 1973. BTW, Torre, now over 60, won a medal at the Olympiad just held in Baku. This game was a heck of a fight and worth going over.

Continuing our “miniature” series, and this one tests your alertness. A game between Loginov and Sideifzade in 1983.

Continuing our “miniature” series, let me introduce a wild grandmaster game (you don’t see much in modern chess) between Seirawan and Browne at Lone Pine in 1979.

This is a fascinating diagram. Which way should Black recapture?

This is one great attacking lesson! Make sure you play through the variations—very instructional. One hint because this is challenging: the first move is NOT a check or capture!

We’re moving from composed miniatures to real game miniatures and the unfortunate souls who fell into trouble early

This is our concluding tribute to Bob Lincoln’s two-move miniature compositions. This one is a perfect two-mover for the average solver because it offers so many “tries.” Only one move gets the mate in two, though.

In continuing our highlighting of American problemist Bob Lincoln, we offer another two-mover miniature. This one is a bit trickier than Monday’s introductory puzzle. Remember: Mate in two.

Because of chess summer school, we’ve ignored our composed problemists, so this week we will highlight an American living legend problemist—my old friend, Bob Lincoln. Bob is the grandmaster of the chess miniature problem (7 or less chessmen). His two-movers never fail to entertain as there usually is some obvious way to mate that isn’t ...

OK. This is it! The last puzzle for chess summer school, using a position derived from Dr. Tarrasch, the great chess teacher of a century ago. If you’ve learned one big thing from this column, you should get this.

In, this, our last week of chess summer school, we will be concluding with three positions from the great chess teacher of the early 20th century, Siegbert Tarrasch. He was the greatest tournament player of the late 19th century as well. Our second example is a great lesson in how a trapped king with a rook never moved on h8 can be deadly for ...

In, this, our last week of chess summer school, we will be concluding with three positions from the great chess teacher of the early 20th century, Siegbert Tarrasch. He was the greatest tournament player of the late 19th century as well. In this game he had started out with one less rook and then sacrificed his queen to reach this position where...

We conclude this week’s study of kingside attacks with a very instructive game well worth playing over to see how White not only sets up his attck, but takes advantage of Black mistakes. The game was Sheremetieva-Sero,, Yugoslavia, 1992 and started out this way: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 c6 6.Bd3 0–0 7.0–0 Nbd7 8.e5 dxe5 9....

In this our 11th week of chess summer school, we’re looking at kingside attacks. Here, from the game Khenkin-Anagnostopoulos, Greece, 2000, White finishes Black off very quickly. It follows that old rule we have harped on here for years!

Wow! Week 11 of Chess Summer School. Time flies. This week we’re going to look at attacking a castled king. Our firs example is from an Olympiad in 1933 where “Mickey” Mikenas topples then world championship contender Salo Flohr. Can you match Mickey?

This is our last endgame challenge for Chess Summer School, but it’s a dandy! Don’t be fooled by its simple appearance. GM John Nunn picked out some incredible teaching problems.

(Due to technical difficulties, this puzzle was left out Wednesday of last week. This then is your Thursday Bonus Puzzle!) Being alert to possibilities is our theme for today and our next puzzle. In this game, Khavsky-Korolev, Leningrad, 1962, White appears to be in dire straits. Black has just played Qg4. If White takes the queen, then 1.hxg4 ...

In this, week ten (!) of chess summer school, we have our second puzzle as we are going back to king and pawn endings to see if you remember some basic principles. This week is based on a contest run by GM John Nunn in British Chess Magazine in 1999. White’s task here is to draw.