I honestly keep being floored and utterly stunned at just how ridiculously deep chess is. It's just beyond words. Which is why I love this channel, a beginner/intermediate like me would probably never see these amazing studies. Stuff like that gives you a whole new appreciation for the game.
Some fun facts: In first puzzle we have 10736 unique positions which we get summary in 3 plies Second puzzle - Mate in 45 Third puzzle - every move is winning. We have there: 1 mate in 4 (c8=B) 1 mate in 5 (c8=Q) 20 mates in 6 6 mates in 7 1 mate in 8 (c8=N) 1 mate in 13 (Rb2+)
the third puzzle is clearly an easy win since white has a pawn at 7th rank and can immediately get a queen to bully the black pawns. The real challenge is how to win within 4 moves, as the queen will not be in a good position to deliver checkmate with the rooks
There's an episode of Seinfeld where George sees a dime from an extraordinary distance then takes a bit of of an onion like an apple. I figured out 2 and 4 in about 30 seconds each. I could've stared at 1 and 3 all day, but in the end I was always going to eat the onion.
As a beginner player (17th week), your diagrams and explanations are the clearest and most instructive. I said it before, but sometimes it's a small comment or aside that has me rewinding, thinking, "what? What did he just say?!" Thank yoi so much!
The last one is from Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. The concept is the box of the queening pawn. All we need is an extra tempo which we got by attacking the black bishop and then coming inside the box.
Dude, I just wanna say this is easily my favorite chess channel. The way you explain things is perfectly paced so that it's really easy to follow, and your topics are interesting and memorable. You don't use extra words so that my mind wanders, and you don't use too few so I'm confused and wondering what just happened. You also enunciate your words well which is important to me because I have some audio processing issues, and I absolutely LOVE the fact that you don't have a jingle at the beginning of your videos, and the jingle at the end isn't too loud! (Loud jingles are so annoying and unnecessary and grating for me. It's like there's this sensory assault first thing and between each video! Ugh! 😅) The topics you cover are also really helpful at my current level of learning, and you're good at explaining them, so thank you for what you do! :)
I was thinking of Qb5 checkmate threat and immediately realized that it can be blocked, but I would've not believed the first puzzle had that many checkmates.
With some assistance from Stockfish, I played the 2nd puzzle and beat it in 52 moves. For the phase of capturing the pawn, I used Stockfish because it's hard, but once it was just my bishop and knight, I stopped using Stockfish. Pushing the king to the side was hard. I got it to the bottom left corner, had a hard time transpositioning the knight to the W maneuver, I finally got the knight on the W and I mated it on the bottom right. Your video on the knight and bishop checkmate helped me. Thanks
2nd puzzle was the only one I figured out. And while the other ones might have more brilliant solutions, this one is just aesthetically beautiful on a whole other level.
I loved the first one, took the time to solve it. First I was certain that Qf7 was the answer because it threatens mate on both Qa7 and Qc4, I was about to unpause before I realized Kc5 lets black get away. So you have to prevent Kc5. Qa5, black can't defend everything!! There's mate threats with Qb6 too which you didn't cover. Super satisfying to solve, and the other positions were great too, thank you for showing!
I solved the first three puzzles pretty quickly. Seems like my puzzle skill has really improved a lot over the last year. But I couldn't solve the last one. It was really fascinating
In positions like the last puzzle (nothing short of amazing btw) it's so hard to find the solution, even if you slowly go through the process of elimination. You would easily discard Kc8 (that's if you consider it at all!) after seeing b5 then Bf5, like how on earth are you stopping the pawn. In a practical game I'd expect few humans to actually find this.
I played the 2nd puzzle again and it really depends on what the computer responds with if I can capture the pawn. Actually Stockfish keeps moving the bishop from g6-a2. I fork the bishop with discovered check then capture it with my knight but after that, it is hard to capture the pawn. The white king is on the opposite side of the board and it's hard to get it past the black king. I have to keep both the knight and bishop on the board and prevent the pawn from queening. I honestly think you should do a video on just that puzzle, the 2nd phase needs to be gone over. Can the black king put up a fight and prevent the pawn from getting captured? If black can't prevent white from capturing the pawn, then it's a quick review on bishop and knight checkmate, which you got a video on.
White can stop the pawn actually quite easily. Depending on where the black King moves out of the check, White plays the Knight in 3 moves either to g6 or to d2 from where it controls the queening square just in time. If the black King attacks the bishop it just moves way back out of the King's range to a6, then the knight can even blockade the pawn on f1 where it's protected by the white bishop, until the white King arrives to capture the pawn.
3:40 (Nr.1) actually white was simply threatening Qb6 checkmate (the only checkmate if black didn't spot it). So I don't get why you would consider all other moves for black but bishop e5 to try to deny at least that! (or any Rook to the 6-line). The other things you showed make no sense as they don't work towards that denial! Of course that denial will, as you say only allow a new checkmate on the bottom. (and of course the rook moves create a new checkmate somewhere, but the other moves you showcased such as white square bishop doesn't work towards denying Qb6. So it doesn't even matter. Anyways I really like your puzzle videos. PS: For feedback: I would have more described what's going with the black king and it's only place to move if the queen was not covering that path anymore - because the queen was the only piece we could move on turn 1 - (and for instance when she tried another trick) That possible escape field should black make any errors is C5. From that you create the goal of somehow checkmating him while denying C5 escape. From that I easily came to QB6+ mate threat. From that one eventually to QA5 which happened to allow the other checkmate(s) should black deny B6! (QA1#) (or if the rooks moved: Qb4#, Kf5#..) So IMO a tiny little less spectacular than what you made of it. (3 moves not all those incredible many lines you drew :-) Of course still relatively hard to find - considering it's only mate in 2, and 3 ways black could deny the first threat but still having mate in 2 is amazing - so yet certainly an interesting one and still a nice rare thing! Thanks for sharing. Cool stuff!
For mate-in-4, you can give a check with R-> f2. The only move black has is to capture rook in b1. Then Queening and get it to a1 to mate in next 2 moves.
When I attended the high school state tournament for the first time, (Illinois) there was a little store you could buy things from between games. There was also a guy who set up puzzles with complex solutions that you couldn't just plug into an engine because you had to find the moves. Long story short the first puzzle was one he presented us, between like 20 of us from different teams we solved it in like 10 minutes
For the first one, I was considering the Qa5 line but I thought I was lost after Bc5. I was so focused on how I wanted to mate instead find alternative ways Second one, I thought I was losing if I immediately chased the bishop. Third one, I knew it was an under promotion but I thought the knight worked because my pawn would stop the escape square Fourth one I had no idea
On the 2nd one, if black plays pawn F4, white cant take the pawn or loses the bishop, if they take the bisop the pawn challenges the knight with F3, and then I think black grabs a stalemate.
@@HorribleGBlob if Ng3+, then Kf2. White can take the bishop or do Nf1 but not both. If Nf1, bishop takes bishop. If black takes the bishop, they lose the night
I failed at one, then at two. I failed the mate in 4 but was pumped to get the mate in 2 for the 3rd. When i saw it I laughed at how crazy it was. Good stuff !
The first one is not really Zugzwang because the zugzwang only accelerates the mate. Even if black could skip his move there would be Qb6+ bc5 Qf6+Re5 Qxf6#
I'd like to add some comments about the first position, and explain why it's actually quite easy. Anyone who has some experience with mate problems will immediately recognize the multiple rooks and bishops as being part of an interference situation. Where those pieces are right now, they guard all the mates, but if any of them moves, they will block (interfere with) some other piece. Next, we look at black's position. Does black have any threats? No. this means we can play a waiting move. But black does have an extra pawn, a free move, and this pawn does nothing but give black the opportunity to hold the line. Therefore, the first move we should consider is to move the queen to block that pawn.
I'm not great a chess, but I've been watching several of these videos the past few days. This is the first one that I was able to confidently get right. The way I thought of it though was different. My thinking was that the black king is trapped by multiple white pieces, the only spot that the queen needs to be defending for the king not to move is c5. so if we can get the queen to b6, that would be mate. So the queen to a5 makes sense for the first move. At that point, the only thing black can potentially do to stop the b6 mate is move one of the rooks down to the 6 row, or move the bishop to c5. but each of those can be replied with a different mate because they block valuable squares. Of course, knowing that it was a mate in 2 probably helped me out here. Moving the queen must be the solution because no other piece could possibly be mate in 2.
In his Chess Life column, Pal Benko called the "2brrb2" rank "Organ pipes"--makes sense being on the wall in the front of a church. Where Black was in zugswang for the move, he called the key "waiting".
I loved the underpromotion into a bishop, but I think I also found a mate in 4 with a queen! c8=Q b3 Qh8 b2 Rfc1 bxc1=any Qa1# edit (I see it now) if Kb3 instead of taking the rook, I thought Qc3+ would be mate too, but the king can move to a4 ...
I thought about tht one, but I thought i had solved it with C8 (queen), b3 Qh3, b2 Rfc1, bxc1 (any) Qb3# looks like checkmate, but i failed to realize tht black can stop the checkmate by just promoting to a knight, which stops Qb3.
Haha Nr2 is also pretty enjoyable. TBH (while I did find the right first moe) I couldn't see that coming at all, of how the bishop couldn't move anywhere but was forced that zigzag line to be the longest surviving line haha. (today I watch parts of the video delayed. I think it's most fun if you try the position yourself on the board or play it out vs AI/hu, to figure these puzzles! Because what's a puzzle worth if you just get the answer. ) PS: I think it's also very good that you give further possibilities to pause/think about follow up moves, incase one didn't find the first move he will have another chance to participate in the puzzle. Edit: Uff how do you find the why for 4, yourself? (without solution) I'm still struggling I want to find it myself before you explain it, - perhaps because it look like it must be so easy to see right?, but it' seems mind boggling indeed. (I will find it) Keep in mind: Before knowing it ;-) Really cool how a position looks that fairly simple and yet has that unexpected depth to it. (Nr.4) edit2 - Just some mind map: Hey what about you give us these puzzles and each day you will reveal one next move of the puzzle and why.. or two moves.. or none but a tip, depending on the puzzle depth, so that in days or rather said 1 week it's through. While also introducing a new puzzle with it (...). Maybe not what you look for for your videos, but I still felt like suggesting it. (Because from my view 1 week to solve and a few tips the next days seems like a nice thing for regular content and keeping in touch with "live"-viewers and more interaction going! On the other hand you have really many amazing videos of content, it's of course not necessary. Some people simply enjoy and prefer browsing a library of videos or other content. )
Okay I'm commenting a little bit late, but in the third puzzle there is an other way to win in four moves and it is by playing Rf2+ Kxb1 is the only legal move for black, and after this the king is stuck on the first rank, we can then play c8=D and there is just nothing Black can do to prevent the checkmate in two Not as elegant as the underpromotion you suggested, but it is way easier to calculate Really enjoyed the video as always, keep up the great content. Love
Oh b3 indeed doesn't lead to mate in four moves. I must have absent mindedly put the rook on the g file when analysing the position, oops Thanks for correcting
@7:36 My casual 4 move solution is different; 1. Rf2+ ....Kxb1 (forced capture) 2. c8Q ...whatever piece you like 3. Qh3 ...whatever piece you like 4. Qh1++ Did I miss something?
Found a mate in 8 trying to figure out how to do this with a queen lol You start by promoting the pawn to a queen. Black goes b3, their only move, but then you go Ra1, and the king is forced into b2. Then Qh8, forcing the king right again, into c2. Queen goes to h3, and the king has 2 options. d2, offering an immediate checkmate with Rf2, or b2 again. Rightmost rook goes from f1-b1, and again, the king is forced to c3. Queen to b3, taking one of the pawns, and putting the king in check, and king is forced into d2. The rook goes to d1, and because it’s protected by the queen and the other rook, king has to go to E2, and Ra1->Ra2 is checkmate. Convoluted, and long (with multiple missed checkmate opportunities), but still a checkmate. Did it the wrong way, and still got the answer (in more than 4 moves).
I actually got the first move of the third one! By the way, "the crooked path" is a key dog walking principle. I walked dogs for 5 years (and my own for longer) and you want your walk to be a certain length/time. Well, in a grid of streets, every crooked path from A to B is the same length. The other reason why grid streets are good is that, with every crooked path the same length, you can change your walk route each time (for variety) without having to calculate the effect on your walk length.
The second puzzle seems to have one more solution from my perspective. You can promote to Queen than after pawn to C3 (only possible move for black) rook to A1 check which forses king to B2 than Rook from F1 to C1 which leaves black with only move pavn A3 to A2 and than queen H8 mate. Corect me if I am vrong. Btw love channel.
in the second puzzle from 4:00, you don't save the Bishop, just go King f2...e3. White Bishop+Knight must run and cannot prevent in the same time from queening in f1.
I was thinking that Black pushing the pawn might be something. As I posted, when the bishop is on h7 if Black plays f4 followed by f3, can White prevent loss of one of his pieces to prevent the pawn from promoting?
I initially thought on puzzle 1 that Queen to H8 would be an inevitable mate just have to capture pieces Black would use to block. But the Black King has C5 to escape to. Good puzzle.
And any other moves of the bishops will block the rooks control squares and any other moves of the rooks will block the bishops control squares with mates on e5 or d5… interesting !
Man the last position resembled a similar (but had only kings and pawns instead of the piece) study, but using the same kind of idea. Think, I could be wrong, it was a study from Reti. Thanks for these puzzles! that four move checkmate is a thing of beauty.
I always thought that study 4 was also Reti, but I’m not sure. He did have a similar study with a Black bishop and a king moving diagonally: White Kf8, Pe6; Black Ka7, Pg6, Be2. The drawing move is Ke7! and if …g5 then Kd6! g4, e7 Bb5, Kc5! gets back to the pawn in time.
the only problem with the second one is that its a knight and bishop checkmate which is so insanely hard and rare that id say 99% of chess players will fail it
whats the point of the 3rd problem? you cant tell me that a 4 move mate saves time when you have to make precise calculations like the one he showed in order to do it also its just generally much safer to promote to a queen
The 2nd puzzle has 3 parts, after the king captures the bishop, capturing the pawn without getting a minor piece captured takes steps, if you successfully capture the pawn, then it's a lesson in checkmating with a bishop and knight which is the hardest possible endgame with no other pieces to mate with. That should be one video. Thinking more on it, if the pawn wasn't there, it would turn into a lesson on bishop and knight checkmate that you may have a video on. With the pawn there, if I was playing as black, I would decoy the knight away with my bishop, most likely B from f7-a2, try to queen the pawn allowing the bishop to capture the queen so I can capture the bishop with my king and 1 knight is insufficient material to mate. Many chess engines don't value a draw over a loss and they're looking for a win trying to hold off queening.
The problem you have here is that you are thinking that black is trying to queen the pawn. If black is playing for a draw (which is the only chance I think, as victory for black can't happen), unless white blunders. Black need only move Be6, then move the Kf2 to escape the corner. Any exchange of material while capturing the bishop + pawn will result in a draw. Or maybe I'm just not seeing it correctly.
On the fourth: Kd6, …; Kc5 would pick up Black’s pawn (after Bf5, b5 or anything else), or if black defends the pawn with Be4, will give white a queen. It’s similar to what you showed, but in less moves. Don’t see why that wouldn’t work. Black’s king can’t be there in time either.
Never mind. Instead of Be4, black has Bc8 as 2nd move, preventing promotion and allowing Black’s king to come closer and guide the pawn to promotion. Shouldering and opposition won’t help, I see it now.
I posted this on another comment, but... I still don't get why d6 doesn't work here. Taking into account 2 moves the black bishop has to make to get to c8, the black king cant catch up, and the white king can go around the black squares to get to d8 threatening both the black pawn and bishop. The black king could get get far enough to protect the pawn, but then you can take the black bishop with the white king.
I got the right intuition for the first, and second, ooh, the third... I'm not good at 4 move check mates, especially in end game. I once got a mate in 6 in middle game when I had a mate in 4 available from the same position but I couldn't see it (and I didn't pay for a solution). I'm expecting an... underpromotion to bishop? Queen in end game is usually bad when you have rooks since it can result in stalemate if you reinforce them by accident. Ok, ok, how about the fourth? White to play and draw... I've never even attempted a draw. Let's see... I'm expecting... king gets behind the black pawn to capture it from check or chase? Idk, it will probably not result in a stalemate, unless it's between the kings. Ok, I probably wouldn't have come up with the crooked path unless I stood to think a bit. Hm. Hm. And I'm ELO 600, started playing seriously yesterday and watching chess videos for 2 days before.
The knight bishop puzzle doesn't work as explained. If, instead of black moving the bishop when attacked by the white king, black instead moves K to f2, white can't take the bishop, or K to e3 eventually wins one of white's pieces, thereby securing a draw, or even a win if black can then successfully advance the pawn. (Or black king can go e1, d2)
Last one was actually the easiest for me, saw it immediately, don't know why, was funny. Same with number 2, just chasing the bishop around. Funny, because my end game sux. These exercises are great for just positional awareness.
Hi, just a casual player here but in the second one: How do you solve bishop to g6 in the "final" position? Bishop will be protected by the pawn on f5 so after the discovered check you can not take the bishop with the knight as you will be stuck King and bishop vs king which is a draw.
im proud of myself I saw the first one almost immediately. I saw that there were no good immediate checks. I saw Qa1 check since it looked interesting. Then I realized it was zuzwang
You completely overcomplicated the first problem. The purpose of Qa5 is the threat Qb6#. Therefore you don't need to analyse any possible legal move by Black but only those who prevent Qb6#. Since the King is trapped, and since no additional escape square can be created (both pawns are stuck), the only moves that we need to analyse are those where Black defends the b6 square or blocks the check in advance and there are only 3 moves: - Bc5: enables Qa1#; - Rd6: enables Qxb4#; - Re6: enables Nf5#.
For the Mate in 4, is 1. c8=Q, b3 2. Qh3, b2 3. Ra1## Not Checkmate in 3? Am I missing an escape plan for Black? He can't take the Rook, and he can't escape to B3... I think that' Checkmate, right? Or is that not allowed to be the solution because it mated too early?
Hey bro, great video as always. Can you please make a video on draw? How can I draw a game when I'm loosing and when should I offer a draw? And what other things that I should know in draw?
For the last puzzle, I was thinking the white king might instead move to d6. The black bishop would be forced to f5, allowing the white king to close in on the black pawn via c5 and then b6. But then I realized black bishop could simply move to c8, defend the black pawn from the back row until the black king would approach and force the white king out of the way. Damn, these puzzles are great!
I still don't get why d6 doesn't work here. Taking into account 2 moves the black bishop has to make to get to c8, the black king cant catch up, and the white king can go around the black squares to get to d8 threatening both the black pawn and bishop. The black king could get get far enough to protect the pawn, but then you can take the black bishop with the white king.
In 2nd game, after Bh7, white should play Nf4+, then corner the bishop with the king. If simply Kg7, black will f4, and white would have a hard time stopping the pawn
With the third puzzle I believe you can also go rook f2, black has to take your other rook, then you promote to a queen and black can choose to either keep moving his king on the backrank or he takes 2 moves to promote to a queen but it won't be in time, you can checkmate then
But in puzzle 2, if the bishop moves to E6, you might get the discovered check. But if you then take the bishop, you lose the knight to the pawn. While the king can get to the pawn, you'll end with a king and a bishop against a king, which should be a draw?
4:42 So the solution for black would be just to ignore its bishop and go for a queen with his pawn? I mean it isnt clear what direction black is playing to, but i would assume up.
7:28 you shouldn't have stopped the study here, it's far from over. Black can play 1. ...f4 and white can't capture the pawn because their bishop that gives the discovered check will be captured, so they must take the bishop, and black advance the pawn to f3. How to stop this pawn and capture it?
I honestly keep being floored and utterly stunned at just how ridiculously deep chess is. It's just beyond words. Which is why I love this channel, a beginner/intermediate like me would probably never see these amazing studies. Stuff like that gives you a whole new appreciation for the game.
Yeah I find this channel to be great for me as an intermediate player
U r a noob
and to think that stockfish already understands everything, how intelligent that ai must be.
It's a mathematical fact that the king moves over 41.4% faster when moving diagonally.
As Pythagoras demonstrated
@@MyBiPolarBearMax
*didnt want to
thats because the board is square shaped.
in the words of ancient philosopher CGP grey, hexagon is the bestagon
@@freds_chess I prefer decagons
@@jasonhalverson1180 i prefer rhombicosidodecahedrons
Some fun facts:
In first puzzle we have 10736 unique positions which we get summary in 3 plies
Second puzzle - Mate in 45
Third puzzle - every move is winning. We have there:
1 mate in 4 (c8=B)
1 mate in 5 (c8=Q)
20 mates in 6
6 mates in 7
1 mate in 8 (c8=N)
1 mate in 13 (Rb2+)
Isn't c8=Q also mate in 4?
... b3
Qh8 b2
Rc1 bxc1=any
Qa1#
oh, I see it now
Kb3 instead of taking the rook, I thought Qc3+ would be mate too, but the king can move to a4 ...
I thought Rf2+ was mate in 4 for the third puzzle but I forgot black can play b3, b2.
@@teambellavsteamalice and also the queen on a1 would be hanging right ?
or black could play b1=Q+ instead of taking the rook
the third puzzle is clearly an easy win since white has a pawn at 7th rank and can immediately get a queen to bully the black pawns. The real challenge is how to win within 4 moves, as the queen will not be in a good position to deliver checkmate with the rooks
There's an episode of Seinfeld where George sees a dime from an extraordinary distance then takes a bit of of an onion like an apple. I figured out 2 and 4 in about 30 seconds each. I could've stared at 1 and 3 all day, but in the end I was always going to eat the onion.
Lmao
I literally don’t care.
@@xelaolapid4763 then why did you take the time out of your day to make this comment? Are you confused?
@@Insame112 I don't care about any opinion from you humans, yet I still take the time to try and teach you youngsters.
@@userhome3601 You sound like a middle schooler.
As a beginner player (17th week), your diagrams and explanations are the clearest and most instructive. I said it before, but sometimes it's a small comment or aside that has me rewinding, thinking, "what? What did he just say?!" Thank yoi so much!
The last one is from Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual.
The concept is the box of the queening pawn. All we need is an extra tempo which we got by attacking the black bishop and then coming inside the box.
I actually saw Qa5 as the only feasable move, but I thought Bc5 prevented everything, but I didn'T see Qa1!
Qa1 is SO GOD DAMN DIRTY!!! I love it.
Wow. This is the first series of puzzles that I couldn’t see the solution to any of them. Brilliant stuff. Thanx!
In the third one, could it be worth mentioning c8=Q b3; Rfc1 b2; Qh3 bxc1=N, with black escaping the mate next move only by the underpromotion?
Dude, I just wanna say this is easily my favorite chess channel. The way you explain things is perfectly paced so that it's really easy to follow, and your topics are interesting and memorable. You don't use extra words so that my mind wanders, and you don't use too few so I'm confused and wondering what just happened. You also enunciate your words well which is important to me because I have some audio processing issues, and I absolutely LOVE the fact that you don't have a jingle at the beginning of your videos, and the jingle at the end isn't too loud!
(Loud jingles are so annoying and unnecessary and grating for me. It's like there's this sensory assault first thing and between each video! Ugh! 😅)
The topics you cover are also really helpful at my current level of learning, and you're good at explaining them, so thank you for what you do! :)
I've found that in many puzzles, opponent's pieces are more useful than our own pieces, as long as we can force them into preferred locations
I was thinking of Qb5 checkmate threat and immediately realized that it can be blocked, but I would've not believed the first puzzle had that many checkmates.
Puzzle #3 Mate in 4 with a queen: 1. c8=Q b3 2. Qh3 b2 3. Rfc1 bxc1=Q 4. Qb3# So you can do it with a queen too. I like the bishop idea too.
Nice try but 3...bxc1=N! stops the mate on b3.
This is such a cool line, I wish he showed it in the video. And yes, it *almost* works - but remember that Black can underpromote too ;)
With some assistance from Stockfish, I played the 2nd puzzle and beat it in 52 moves. For the phase of capturing the pawn, I used Stockfish because it's hard, but once it was just my bishop and knight, I stopped using Stockfish. Pushing the king to the side was hard. I got it to the bottom left corner, had a hard time transpositioning the knight to the W maneuver, I finally got the knight on the W and I mated it on the bottom right. Your video on the knight and bishop checkmate helped me. Thanks
2nd puzzle was the only one I figured out. And while the other ones might have more brilliant solutions, this one is just aesthetically beautiful on a whole other level.
I loved the first one, took the time to solve it.
First I was certain that Qf7 was the answer because it threatens mate on both Qa7 and Qc4, I was about to unpause before I realized Kc5 lets black get away.
So you have to prevent Kc5. Qa5, black can't defend everything!! There's mate threats with Qb6 too which you didn't cover. Super satisfying to solve, and the other positions were great too, thank you for showing!
Mind blowing stuff - the chess rabbit hole really doesn’t seem to have an end.
I solved the first three puzzles pretty quickly. Seems like my puzzle skill has really improved a lot over the last year. But I couldn't solve the last one. It was really fascinating
In positions like the last puzzle (nothing short of amazing btw) it's so hard to find the solution, even if you slowly go through the process of elimination. You would easily discard Kc8 (that's if you consider it at all!) after seeing b5 then Bf5, like how on earth are you stopping the pawn. In a practical game I'd expect few humans to actually find this.
10:02 you forgot to mention that if white plays rc1 black can promote to a knight
I played the 2nd puzzle again and it really depends on what the computer responds with if I can capture the pawn. Actually Stockfish keeps moving the bishop from g6-a2. I fork the bishop with discovered check then capture it with my knight but after that, it is hard to capture the pawn. The white king is on the opposite side of the board and it's hard to get it past the black king. I have to keep both the knight and bishop on the board and prevent the pawn from queening. I honestly think you should do a video on just that puzzle, the 2nd phase needs to be gone over. Can the black king put up a fight and prevent the pawn from getting captured? If black can't prevent white from capturing the pawn, then it's a quick review on bishop and knight checkmate, which you got a video on.
White can stop the pawn actually quite easily. Depending on where the black King moves out of the check, White plays the Knight in 3 moves either to g6 or to d2 from where it controls the queening square just in time.
If the black King attacks the bishop it just moves way back out of the King's range to a6, then the knight can even blockade the pawn on f1 where it's protected by the white bishop, until the white King arrives to capture the pawn.
3:40 (Nr.1) actually white was simply threatening Qb6 checkmate (the only checkmate if black didn't spot it). So I don't get why you would consider all other moves for black but bishop e5 to try to deny at least that! (or any Rook to the 6-line). The other things you showed make no sense as they don't work towards that denial! Of course that denial will, as you say only allow a new checkmate on the bottom. (and of course the rook moves create a new checkmate somewhere, but the other moves you showcased such as white square bishop doesn't work towards denying Qb6. So it doesn't even matter. Anyways I really like your puzzle videos.
PS: For feedback: I would have more described what's going with the black king and it's only place to move if the queen was not covering that path anymore - because the queen was the only piece we could move on turn 1 - (and for instance when she tried another trick) That possible escape field should black make any errors is C5. From that you create the goal of somehow checkmating him while denying C5 escape. From that I easily came to QB6+ mate threat. From that one eventually to QA5 which happened to allow the other checkmate(s) should black deny B6! (QA1#) (or if the rooks moved: Qb4#, Kf5#..)
So IMO a tiny little less spectacular than what you made of it. (3 moves not all those incredible many lines you drew :-) Of course still relatively hard to find - considering it's only mate in 2, and 3 ways black could deny the first threat but still having mate in 2 is amazing - so yet certainly an interesting one and still a nice rare thing!
Thanks for sharing. Cool stuff!
Chess is like life so varied and wonderful. So many patterns !!!!
Great video NL
It sounds like your queen has been taken by a local Bishop while you were looking elsewhere.
For mate-in-4, you can give a check with R-> f2. The only move black has is to capture rook in b1. Then Queening and get it to a1 to mate in next 2 moves.
only problem being that black can move the b pawn to b2 in the meantime to create a shelter for the king, so close but no cigar.
It is mate in 5 on four
Amazing!! Please give us more like this 😀💯👌👌
When I attended the high school state tournament for the first time, (Illinois) there was a little store you could buy things from between games. There was also a guy who set up puzzles with complex solutions that you couldn't just plug into an engine because you had to find the moves.
Long story short the first puzzle was one he presented us, between like 20 of us from different teams we solved it in like 10 minutes
Yes, _Secrets of Spectacular Chess_ is my favorite chess book, there are loads of marvelous positions in there. I recommend it.
That old video with cute joke "win more chess games if you hit the thumbs up button on this video"
This one was nuts! Great stuff
For the first one, I was considering the Qa5 line but I thought I was lost after Bc5. I was so focused on how I wanted to mate instead find alternative ways
Second one, I thought I was losing if I immediately chased the bishop.
Third one, I knew it was an under promotion but I thought the knight worked because my pawn would stop the escape square
Fourth one I had no idea
1st puzzle Took me a while to realize the bishop blocks the escape square yeah
On the 2nd one, if black plays pawn F4, white cant take the pawn or loses the bishop, if they take the bisop the pawn challenges the knight with F3, and then I think black grabs a stalemate.
yep, the 2nd one is not a win for white
Nah, just Ng3+ and then Nf1 blockades the pawn, and then White’s king comes down and wins it.
@@HorribleGBlob if Ng3+, then Kf2. White can take the bishop or do Nf1 but not both. If Nf1, bishop takes bishop. If black takes the bishop, they lose the night
I failed at one, then at two. I failed the mate in 4 but was pumped to get the mate in 2 for the 3rd. When i saw it I laughed at how crazy it was. Good stuff !
FENs for puzzles
Puzzle 1 - 2brrb2/8/p7/7Q/1p1kpPp1/1P1pN1P1/3K4/8 w - - 0 1
Puzzle 2 - 2b5/K7/8/5p2/8/3B4/4N3/5k2 w - - 0 1
Puzzle 3 - 8/1KP5/8/2p5/1pP5/p7/k7/1R3R2 w - - 0 1
Puzzle 4 - 8/1pPK3b/8/8/8/5k2/8/8 w - - 0 1
The first one is not really Zugzwang because the zugzwang only accelerates the mate. Even if black could skip his move there would be Qb6+ bc5 Qf6+Re5 Qxf6#
I really liked the mate-in-two at the beginning. Very nice.
You have a wonderful way of explaining. Thank you.
I thought the third puzzle was a knight thing but I couldn’t figure it out, thanks for the video :D
I'd like to add some comments about the first position, and explain why it's actually quite easy.
Anyone who has some experience with mate problems will immediately recognize the multiple rooks and bishops as being part of an interference situation. Where those pieces are right now, they guard all the mates, but if any of them moves, they will block (interfere with) some other piece. Next, we look at black's position. Does black have any threats? No. this means we can play a waiting move. But black does have an extra pawn, a free move, and this pawn does nothing but give black the opportunity to hold the line.
Therefore, the first move we should consider is to move the queen to block that pawn.
I'm not great a chess, but I've been watching several of these videos the past few days. This is the first one that I was able to confidently get right. The way I thought of it though was different.
My thinking was that the black king is trapped by multiple white pieces, the only spot that the queen needs to be defending for the king not to move is c5. so if we can get the queen to b6, that would be mate. So the queen to a5 makes sense for the first move. At that point, the only thing black can potentially do to stop the b6 mate is move one of the rooks down to the 6 row, or move the bishop to c5. but each of those can be replied with a different mate because they block valuable squares.
Of course, knowing that it was a mate in 2 probably helped me out here. Moving the queen must be the solution because no other piece could possibly be mate in 2.
In his Chess Life column, Pal Benko called the "2brrb2" rank "Organ pipes"--makes sense being on the wall in the front of a church. Where Black was in zugswang for the move, he called the key "waiting".
I loved the underpromotion into a bishop, but I think I also found a mate in 4 with a queen!
c8=Q b3
Qh8 b2
Rfc1 bxc1=any
Qa1#
edit (I see it now)
if Kb3 instead of taking the rook, I thought Qc3+ would be mate too, but the king can move to a4 ...
I thought about tht one, but I thought i had solved it with
C8 (queen), b3
Qh3, b2
Rfc1, bxc1 (any)
Qb3#
looks like checkmate, but i failed to realize tht black can stop the checkmate by just promoting to a knight, which stops Qb3.
Haha Nr2 is also pretty enjoyable. TBH (while I did find the right first moe) I couldn't see that coming at all, of how the bishop couldn't move anywhere but was forced that zigzag line to be the longest surviving line haha. (today I watch parts of the video delayed. I think it's most fun if you try the position yourself on the board or play it out vs AI/hu, to figure these puzzles! Because what's a puzzle worth if you just get the answer. ) PS: I think it's also very good that you give further possibilities to pause/think about follow up moves, incase one didn't find the first move he will have another chance to participate in the puzzle. Edit: Uff how do you find the why for 4, yourself? (without solution) I'm still struggling I want to find it myself before you explain it, - perhaps because it look like it must be so easy to see right?, but it' seems mind boggling indeed. (I will find it) Keep in mind: Before knowing it ;-)
Really cool how a position looks that fairly simple and yet has that unexpected depth to it. (Nr.4)
edit2 - Just some mind map:
Hey what about you give us these puzzles and each day you will reveal one next move of the puzzle and why.. or two moves.. or none but a tip, depending on the puzzle depth, so that in days or rather said 1 week it's through. While also introducing a new puzzle with it (...). Maybe not what you look for for your videos, but I still felt like suggesting it. (Because from my view 1 week to solve and a few tips the next days seems like a nice thing for regular content and keeping in touch with "live"-viewers and more interaction going! On the other hand you have really many amazing videos of content, it's of course not necessary. Some people simply enjoy and prefer browsing a library of videos or other content. )
Okay I'm commenting a little bit late, but in the third puzzle there is an other way to win in four moves and it is by playing Rf2+
Kxb1 is the only legal move for black, and after this the king is stuck on the first rank, we can then play c8=D and there is just nothing Black can do to prevent the checkmate in two
Not as elegant as the underpromotion you suggested, but it is way easier to calculate
Really enjoyed the video as always, keep up the great content. Love
I saw that idea too, but it doesn't quite work. Black can actually get off of the back rank by blocking the rook's vision with a pawn
Oh b3 indeed doesn't lead to mate in four moves. I must have absent mindedly put the rook on the g file when analysing the position, oops
Thanks for correcting
More of these please!!
@7:36 My casual 4 move solution is different;
1. Rf2+ ....Kxb1 (forced capture)
2. c8Q ...whatever piece you like
3. Qh3 ...whatever piece you like
4. Qh1++
Did I miss something?
Yep, I missed:
Black moving b3, then b2, then tucking the King away at a2.
Thank you for showing us the beautiful dimensions of chess. Excellent English!
Found a mate in 8 trying to figure out how to do this with a queen lol
You start by promoting the pawn to a queen. Black goes b3, their only move, but then you go Ra1, and the king is forced into b2. Then Qh8, forcing the king right again, into c2. Queen goes to h3, and the king has 2 options. d2, offering an immediate checkmate with Rf2, or b2 again. Rightmost rook goes from f1-b1, and again, the king is forced to c3. Queen to b3, taking one of the pawns, and putting the king in check, and king is forced into d2. The rook goes to d1, and because it’s protected by the queen and the other rook, king has to go to E2, and Ra1->Ra2 is checkmate. Convoluted, and long (with multiple missed checkmate opportunities), but still a checkmate. Did it the wrong way, and still got the answer (in more than 4 moves).
Love that first puzzle
Ok, that second one is equally amazing. I guess you have to be in the mood for these, and I'm in the mood.
I actually got the first move of the third one!
By the way, "the crooked path" is a key dog walking principle. I walked dogs for 5 years (and my own for longer) and you want your walk to be a certain length/time. Well, in a grid of streets, every crooked path from A to B is the same length.
The other reason why grid streets are good is that, with every crooked path the same length, you can change your walk route each time (for variety) without having to calculate the effect on your walk length.
in the second puzzle if you play rf2+ kxb2 only move, then you bring a queen,you check mate in more 2 moves, and its actually a lot easier to see
The second puzzle seems to have one more solution from my perspective. You can promote to Queen than after pawn to C3 (only possible move for black) rook to A1 check which forses king to B2 than Rook from F1 to C1 which leaves black with only move pavn A3 to A2 and than queen H8 mate. Corect me if I am vrong. Btw love channel.
Sorry first move for black is not pawn to C3 but pawn to B3
Sorry now i see the escape for king on A3. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️😄
in the second puzzle from 4:00, you don't save the Bishop, just go King f2...e3. White Bishop+Knight must run and cannot prevent in the same time from queening in f1.
I was thinking that Black pushing the pawn might be something. As I posted, when the bishop is on h7 if Black plays f4 followed by f3, can White prevent loss of one of his pieces to prevent the pawn from promoting?
If you play f2... e3, Ba6... Ng3... Nf1
If you play f4, Kxh7, f3, Ng3+... Nf1
Fascinating indeed. Keep posting.
Great puzzles as always. The 4th was very very tricky 👍👍
I initially thought on puzzle 1 that Queen to H8 would be an inevitable mate just have to capture pieces Black would use to block. But the Black King has C5 to escape to. Good puzzle.
First one took me 2 minutes
Qa5 threatening mate by Qb6, 3 ways to stop it,
If Bc5 Qa1#, if Rd6 Qxb4#, if Re6 Nf5#
And any other moves of the bishops will block the rooks control squares and any other moves of the rooks will block the bishops control squares with mates on e5 or d5… interesting !
Man the last position resembled a similar (but had only kings and pawns instead of the piece) study, but using the same kind of idea. Think, I could be wrong, it was a study from Reti. Thanks for these puzzles! that four move checkmate is a thing of beauty.
I always thought that study 4 was also Reti, but I’m not sure. He did have a similar study with a Black bishop and a king moving diagonally: White Kf8, Pe6; Black Ka7, Pg6, Be2. The drawing move is Ke7! and if …g5 then Kd6! g4, e7 Bb5, Kc5! gets back to the pawn in time.
the only problem with the second one is that its a knight and bishop checkmate which is so insanely hard and rare that id say 99% of chess players will fail it
whats the point of the 3rd problem?
you cant tell me that a 4 move mate saves time when you have to make precise calculations like the one he showed in order to do it
also its just generally much safer to promote to a queen
The 2nd puzzle has 3 parts, after the king captures the bishop, capturing the pawn without getting a minor piece captured takes steps, if you successfully capture the pawn, then it's a lesson in checkmating with a bishop and knight which is the hardest possible endgame with no other pieces to mate with. That should be one video.
Thinking more on it, if the pawn wasn't there, it would turn into a lesson on bishop and knight checkmate that you may have a video on. With the pawn there, if I was playing as black, I would decoy the knight away with my bishop, most likely B from f7-a2, try to queen the pawn allowing the bishop to capture the queen so I can capture the bishop with my king and 1 knight is insufficient material to mate. Many chess engines don't value a draw over a loss and they're looking for a win trying to hold off queening.
The problem you have here is that you are thinking that black is trying to queen the pawn. If black is playing for a draw (which is the only chance I think, as victory for black can't happen), unless white blunders. Black need only move Be6, then move the Kf2 to escape the corner. Any exchange of material while capturing the bishop + pawn will result in a draw. Or maybe I'm just not seeing it correctly.
On the fourth: Kd6, …; Kc5 would pick up Black’s pawn (after Bf5, b5 or anything else), or if black defends the pawn with Be4, will give white a queen. It’s similar to what you showed, but in less moves. Don’t see why that wouldn’t work. Black’s king can’t be there in time either.
Never mind. Instead of Be4, black has Bc8 as 2nd move, preventing promotion and allowing Black’s king to come closer and guide the pawn to promotion. Shouldering and opposition won’t help, I see it now.
I posted this on another comment, but...
I still don't get why d6 doesn't work here. Taking into account 2 moves the black bishop has to make to get to c8, the black king cant catch up, and the white king can go around the black squares to get to d8 threatening both the black pawn and bishop. The black king could get get far enough to protect the pawn, but then you can take the black bishop with the white king.
nvm i see my mistake, the black pawn can still do the double move
I was looking at Qh8+ in 1st example, but that seems to take 3 moves for mate.
Yhea
After Kc5, there is no mate at all. You're just lost.
I got the right intuition for the first, and second, ooh, the third... I'm not good at 4 move check mates, especially in end game. I once got a mate in 6 in middle game when I had a mate in 4 available from the same position but I couldn't see it (and I didn't pay for a solution). I'm expecting an... underpromotion to bishop? Queen in end game is usually bad when you have rooks since it can result in stalemate if you reinforce them by accident.
Ok, ok, how about the fourth? White to play and draw... I've never even attempted a draw. Let's see... I'm expecting... king gets behind the black pawn to capture it from check or chase? Idk, it will probably not result in a stalemate, unless it's between the kings.
Ok, I probably wouldn't have come up with the crooked path unless I stood to think a bit.
Hm. Hm. And I'm ELO 600, started playing seriously yesterday and watching chess videos for 2 days before.
The knight bishop puzzle doesn't work as explained. If, instead of black moving the bishop when attacked by the white king, black instead moves K to f2, white can't take the bishop, or K to e3 eventually wins one of white's pieces, thereby securing a draw, or even a win if black can then successfully advance the pawn. (Or black king can go e1, d2)
The crooked path. Fascinating.
First problem has a defect. After 1 Qa5, Black can play Re7. In that case there are 2 ways to checkmate. 2 Qb6 or 2 Qxb4.
That makes it a defect? Then why don't you try making a puzzle where there is one correct move for _every_ variation?
lol, the most interesting thing is that the last puzzle IMMEDIATELY jumped on my head.... the other ones I failed miserably to see.
I would like if you could do a Q&A Or if you could solve puzzles that your viewers create
For the third one Rf2 is also a mate in 4 because Kxb1.c8.a2.Qh3.a1=Q.Qh1. Am I right ?
Sorry for the mistake I m french
Last one was actually the easiest for me, saw it immediately, don't know why, was funny. Same with number 2, just chasing the bishop around. Funny, because my end game sux. These exercises are great for just positional awareness.
Could you en passant on the first game with the e4 or g4 pawn? Dont know what that would change but it has to be good, right?
Me in the last puzzle: Aha! Get a knight, and there’s no way the pawn can getaway!
I forgot that pawn hadn’t moved yet.
Underpromotion makes no difference. A knight isn't harder to capture than a queen.
Hi, just a casual player here but in the second one: How do you solve bishop to g6 in the "final" position? Bishop will be protected by the pawn on f5 so after the discovered check you can not take the bishop with the knight as you will be stuck King and bishop vs king which is a draw.
The Pawn is moving down the board, so it doesn’t protect g6.
im proud of myself I saw the first one almost immediately. I saw that there were no good immediate checks. I saw Qa1 check since it looked interesting. Then I realized it was zuzwang
I love these weird situations. Thanks
in the first puzzle I would have gone for queen to H8 check. Which also leads to a guarenteed checkmate. but in 3
You completely overcomplicated the first problem. The purpose of Qa5 is the threat Qb6#. Therefore you don't need to analyse any possible legal move by Black but only those who prevent Qb6#. Since the King is trapped, and since no additional escape square can be created (both pawns are stuck), the only moves that we need to analyse are those where Black defends the b6 square or blocks the check in advance and there are only 3 moves:
- Bc5: enables Qa1#;
- Rd6: enables Qxb4#;
- Re6: enables Nf5#.
Qb6 isn't a mate threat because black has Bc5
7:07 black can draw by pushing the pawn, or maybe even win. (I think so)
For the Mate in 4, is
1. c8=Q, b3
2. Qh3, b2
3. Ra1##
Not Checkmate in 3?
Am I missing an escape plan for Black? He can't take the Rook, and he can't escape to B3... I think that' Checkmate, right?
Or is that not allowed to be the solution because it mated too early?
The b2 pawn takes the rook in a1 and promotes to a queen.
@@MedAb8 Derp! Thanks! I don't know how I missed that. (Probably because I don't play a ton of chess...)
Dang I actually solved it this time. It’s a waiting move. One of the best puzzles I’ve seen.
Hey bro, great video as always. Can you please make a video on draw? How can I draw a game when I'm loosing and when should I offer a draw? And what other things that I should know in draw?
such wonderfull stuff you are giving us, thx alot!
For the last puzzle, I was thinking the white king might instead move to d6. The black bishop would be forced to f5, allowing the white king to close in on the black pawn via c5 and then b6. But then I realized black bishop could simply move to c8, defend the black pawn from the back row until the black king would approach and force the white king out of the way.
Damn, these puzzles are great!
I still don't get why d6 doesn't work here. Taking into account 2 moves the black bishop has to make to get to c8, the black king cant catch up, and the white king can go around the black squares to get to d8 threatening both the black pawn and bishop. The black king could get get far enough to protect the pawn, but then you can take the black bishop with the white king.
nvm i see my mistake... the black pawn can still do a double move
Really good puzzles and explanations.
In 2nd game, after Bh7, white should play Nf4+, then corner the bishop with the king. If simply Kg7, black will f4, and white would have a hard time stopping the pawn
For the third one you could mate in 3 by moving the bishop behind the pawn and then having a discovered check on your third move by moving the pawn.
You can't move the pawn for a discovery. It's moving up the board and is blockaded
@@maxlindemann1429 You're right. I got confused with the direction that the pieces were moving.
For the 3rd puzzle, realistically, you trade 2 rooms with 2 pawns and you're still a queen up lol
Utterly Outstanding Chess Channel
Potential title of the second puzzle: when a bishop becomes ferz
In the last puzzle the trick was to make black to lose 2 moves in other pieces than the pawn and either win or draw
Incredible stuff!
The first one got me, but in retrospect it seems unnaturally contrived.
The last one I guess was ok, but I wasn't blown away as much as he was.
I guess the crazy part for the last one is that the only two correct first moves is to move the king to a square and then back.
With the third puzzle I believe you can also go rook f2, black has to take your other rook, then you promote to a queen and black can choose to either keep moving his king on the backrank or he takes 2 moves to promote to a queen but it won't be in time, you can checkmate then
Black can play b3 and b2 and make an escape square for his king on a2.
@@HorribleGBlob Oh I see indeed. Because then the pawn is blocking youre just not in time to mate in 4
But in puzzle 2, if the bishop moves to E6, you might get the discovered check. But if you then take the bishop, you lose the knight to the pawn. While the king can get to the pawn, you'll end with a king and a bishop against a king, which should be a draw?
4:42 So the solution for black would be just to ignore its bishop and go for a queen with his pawn? I mean it isnt clear what direction black is playing to, but i would assume up.
Yes, put the bishop at A2 6:39 The knight must move... Pawn ... Get knight to b3...
Hello Chess Vibes I love ur channel
In the second puzzle with the bishop on h7, what if f4? If the bishop is taken, then f3 -- is white still winning? Is it worth commenting on?
Was searching the comments for this.
Preventing promotion without sacrificing a piece seems impossible to me.
7:28 you shouldn't have stopped the study here, it's far from over. Black can play 1. ...f4 and white can't capture the pawn because their bishop that gives the discovered check will be captured, so they must take the bishop, and black advance the pawn to f3. How to stop this pawn and capture it?
...f4, Kxh7, f3, Ng3 check, Kf2, Ng1 and you cant capture it
What is the book name?
What about 1st move Queen to h8 chk? if black interposes with the bishop, capture and mate. If black interposes with the rook, capture and mate.
What chess software program are you using?
The third puzzle was sooo good