Here is another chess endgame puzzle where we’re looking for the winning move.  It’s black to play. See if you can find the correct move. The answer will appear in my next post.

The answer is for black to play R-g7. White can only play R-h7 and black checkmates with R-g8. 

I hope you found the answer. Look for another new puzzle in my next post!

Here is another chess endgame puzzle where we’re looking for the winning move.  It’s black to play. See if you can find the correct move. The answer will appear in my next post.

First, you can readily see that unless white comes up with a forcing move, black could easily cause a lot of trouble for white starting with Q-d5+. So white needs to find a way to keep the heat on black first and does so with Rxd8+.  This black king pretty much has to recapture with Kxd8. (Obviously, if black plays K-e7, then Qxf8 is checkmate.)

So after black plays Kxd8, white responds with Qxf8+. The best move for black now is Q-e8. (Because if K-d7, white responds with Q-d6+, then after K-e8, white checkmates with R-c8.)

After black plays Q-e8, white plays R-c8+ winning the black queen for the rook. (Because after Kxc8, white plays Qxe8. Of course, if black plays K-d7, then white checkmate’s with Qxe8.)

I hope you found the answer. Look for another new puzzle in my next post!

Here is another chess endgame puzzle that came from a game played by one of my students. We are again looking for the winning move.  It’s white to play. See if you can find the correct move. The answer will appear in my next post.

The answer is N-h2. White is pretty much forced to play R-d3. Black then plays N-f3 and white is forced to trade his rook for the knight. After the black king recaptures the rook, black has an easily won end game by moving his king into position to queen his pawn. Congratulations if you found the correct move!

Here is another chess endgame puzzle where we’re looking for the winning move.  It’s black to play. See if you can find the correct move. The answer will appear in my next post.

The answer is R-h3 check. The black king is forced to take the white pawn on e4, leaving white to play R-h4 check, winning black’s rook, and the game. Congratulations if you found the answer! Look for another challenging chess endgame puzzle in my next post.

Here is another chess endgame puzzle where we’re looking for the winning move.  It’s white to play. See if you can find the correct move. The answer will appear in my next post.

The two most obvious moves for white are either Rxf6 check or exf check. The important difference is where the black king ends up. Rxf6 check followed by …Kxf6, then exf followed by …Kxf5 leaves the black king on f5, and white with a draw and virtually no hope for a win.

But, if you reverse the sequence and play exf check, the black king must take the pawn because the black rook is pinned. So after …Kxf5 white plays Rxf6 check. The black king captures the white rook on f6 leaving the white king free to move to g4 and then capture the black pawn on h4 on the next move leading to a win. Congrats if you saw the proper moves.