You can’t have 100 queens, because of two reasons: the board has 64 squares and 9 queens is the maximum amount of queens. But it is true, that the imbalance of points is very great.
Nakamura would like #7 The five knight checkmate, an essential technique for every chess player before they can ever imagine converting positional advantages
Yeah at first I thought it was a mistake as it seemed like a useless waste of a knight. It was a sacrifice of a knight as it put the Black King on a black space.
0:00 highlight 0:26 intro 1:21 puzzle 1 - one pawn vs black’s entire army! 2:40 puzzle 2 - please take the rook! 5:02 puzzle 3 - unstoppable double isolated pawns! 8:36 puzzle 4 - a double diagonal pin! 11:35 puzzle 5 - who skewers first? 13:14 puzzle 6 - the greatest king chase in history 15:10 puzzle 7 - a knightmare! 17:22 puzzle 8 - the iron cage of Tamerlane
Two of the first books I read were "The Chess Companion" and "Practical Chess Endings" by Irving Chernev. I was really lucky to come to those first, because they were both filled with amazing studies like this. They give a feeling for what is possible even in the simplest positions! Thanks for a great video! I had not seen any of these. Put up some sui-mates! Where one side forces the other side to give checkmate against his will!
As an ultru super mega novice player who probably scores at a -450, that last puzzle absolutely blows my mind away. Amazing stuff, sir. Keep up the good work, you make these really interesting!
Hey Nelson! These are my favorite of your videos. I know it's a little more work but could you post pgns for puzzle videos like this in the future in the description? I'm just not good enough at visuslization for some of the harder moves and remaking the position is a chore especially when there are 8 of them! Thanks so much and keep making puzzle/endgame study videos!
7. 15:11 Black defends better with bK moves which allow wQ checks (in that they force White to take longer) rather than those which allow wN checks. 2 g8=N+ Kg5 is better than 2 g8=N+ Kh7 #13 4 Nxg4+ Kh7 allows #4 as you showed, but 4 Nxg4+ Kg5 makes it #10.
Wow! Some of those really blew my mind! Fantastic stuff. I feel like I’m going to be on the look out for that double pin idea. Slim chance, but it “could” turn up in a game.
I first read about cross pins years ago when I was learning tactics and I thought they would come up quite often if I looked for them over the board, much like skewers and pins. It turns out that they are incredibly rare, but I had one game where I got one by accident when my opponent made an attack that made me think I had to resign, but then I spotted the only move that didn't lose. In fact, it caused my opponent to resign! It's a really weird feeling when you get in that situation, as the person who had the initiative suddenly finds themself hopelessly lost, while the other one that was under pressure makes a desperate move that accidentally turns out to be a crushing blow.
Puzzle 2 starting at 4:20 gets even more neat if you look at the plays by white not centered on the black rook. W Qe3, takes the threatening knight, but leaves the pawn mate on board for black W Nd4, similar result, protects that same square but pawn mates W pawn b3, would normally give king an escape path from the pawn mate, except that cleverly placed rook is now actually doing something and blocking that escape path
In puzzle 3, the idea that white will take the bishop with the rook doesn’t seem to make sense. Black will simply capture the rook with the pawn on a7, right? What am I missing?
Yeah I was stumped on this one as well, since the ones he showed seemed to be such "obvious bad moves" compared to just taking the rook. So I looked it up and capturing the rook as you described is indeed no bad move at all, actually "the best one" if one disregards moving the pawn forward, so I don't understand why it wasn't shown. Naturally the only good move left for white will be to move the knight to d3 to block the pawn as well as saving itself. So you're not missing anything. It would lead to a pretty even end-game, and is in no way a bad move by black. I feel this could have been emphasized a bit more when he showed the resulting moves.
@@arsenic1987 yes, but c4 is so so much better since after you queen after the sequence of moves, there is a fork of the knight and rook. (Or maybe king and rook I don't remember) so c4 is much better than axb6
The second one actually reminds me of an advanced type of tactic where your opponent has two lines of "influence" but by putting a piece in both of those lines, you block _one_ of them, regardless of whether or not the piece is defended. It's a pretty cool tactic, actually.
Position 2 is from the post-mortem analysis of a blitz game between Koskinen (which is a common Finnish name, not to be confused with the chess player Henri Koskinen in the databases, who was born in 1964 - so likely the first name Henri is wrong in my sources) and Juha Kasanen, Helsinki 1967.
Your pick of studies and compositions are amazing. Though that line of "Want to be 1500+ to read this book" made me go. "Welp never getting that book then."
Counterplay idea for black in position 4 (note: it may be just a slight hope in hell due to the trashy position for black but with the right counterplay there’s a chance that black can win) So I’ll go from the start of the puzzle: 1. c6, kb8 2. kd8/kd7, b2 3. c7+, ka7 (this move is critical as it let’s black promote on the next move giving him a small chance to use some counterplay or causing problems for white as one opening and black brings their queen into the game) 4. c8=Q (idk, what else would he play), b8=Q And bam both have queens, white can probably force a the mate mentioned above with continuous checks but it does better the position for black if it’s even the slightest bit.
Puzzle 3: Why are we attacking the rook after white’s second move, when we could have just captured it after white’s first move? This pawn has already shown it’s not interested in playing to win.
if you are talking about when rook takes the bishop, you can't because then knight goes d3, and there is no moves for black to open space to get a queen, if you move the b pawn(that took the rook) you lose protection on c5, if you move any of the c pawns, knight just goes c1 and blocks the way, if after that you try using the b pawn, he can go until he is captured by the white pawn, and on b3 the white pawn is protected by the knight, he can capture your pawn if you use a pawn on c4 to capture it, and defend against c2 becoming a queen at the same time, so you need to stop the knight from moving to d3, the same kind of reasoning stop the knight from capturing your pawn when you move it to c4, it looks like a good idea to capture, but white would lose control over critical space and black can get a queen safely.
That would be a blunder, because black needs to convert a pawn into a queen to win. If black takes the rook, white's knight can move to d3 and stop the advanced pawn from queening on c1. White would be up a knight and black would have no chance of winning. That's why black put his rook en prise in the first place. He wants to stop the pawns, and it's worth giving up the rook in order to do that.
Yeah... I worked every scenario after that move and they are definitely stoppable with that move (of course from that point on - after you sacrifice the black Rook). No matter what black does with that move I can stop the Pawn from promotion.
This is over a year late, but nope, this idea doesn’t work. If instead of capturing the Bishop on b6 you went Rd7 like you suggest, black plays c4+ because the Bishop on b6 is lined up on the white king, so you don’t actually get to play Rd1 after Rd7 because you have to move your king out of check, then black takes the knight, then you play Rd1, then black plays c3, and you have two connected passed pawns against the rook. The rook can’t stop both of them, and there’s nothing left for white to do, there’s no checks on black’s king, and black will inevitably get a queen and win. Don’t know if you looked into this further after posting your original comment, but hope this info is helpful!
8. As you say, White has many mating moves from the diagram position. Even after 1 f3+ gxf3, White has 2 Ng5#/Re5#/Qe5#. I wonder, was this a medieval position? (It must at any rate be from after modern bishops were introduced into chess.) For problems where White sacrifices lots in order to force Black to wall their king in, allowing a mid-board smothered mate, I suggest * Konrad Bayer's "Immortal Problem" (3Q4/5q1k/4ppp1/2Kp1N1B/RR6/3P1r2/4nP1b/3b4 #9) * Johann Christoffel van Gool's more modern (1979) setting of the same idea (2n1QN2/2Np1pk1/1b1p1p2/1Kp1B1p1/1R3p2/2P1r3/1r1nPRb1/1B5q #12).
Puzzle no 2: Rb5 looks winning initially. The threat of axb4, then R-a5. However, it gives white the time to play b3 and the king escapes to b2. It is checking all the combinations that makes the puzzles hard. Rb5 would win a against a novice or just make the game really interesting.
Why can't we take with a pawn on b5, bishop has to take if im not mistaken. Then we just take the bishop with a queen and it's a mate, no? Why can't we do that
@@user-xd7gs5uq5y white queen is protecting that diagonal. You could do that, but white queen takes black queen, black rook takes white queen, then king is free to take black rook
"How do people come up with this?" - i think the answer is they start from the end move+ condition. E.g. what's the MOST number of knights I can have to securely checkmate the king? then they study every move backwards to find the most beautiful one. Later add pieces which look like they do something but in reality they do not and voilá... easier said than done lol
@@biscy03I believe it's because if the knight can get to d3 after you take the rook, even if you push C4 afterwards it can move back to C1 to stop you from Queening. Then the endgame is much tougher, but I think black can still win it. But it's still optimal to play the moves in the video. Edit: Actually black cant win here. Even in that position once the knight stops you from queening, then it's over. After white pushes A3, black has no way of getting the pawn in the B file past to kick the knight away, before the white king can get over to help. Blacks pawn on the E file can be stopped by the king as well. Best black can hope for there is a stalemate.
@@Ace-hs3ux Thank you so much for answering! I really couldn't think any moves ahead apart from, "rook is ded, this is a win" xDDD But I get your point now
In puzzle 3, after Rb6 I get the sequence shown but seemed odd not to mention that black could just take it with their pawn on a7. Isn't that also winning? (the knight can't stop the pawns on its own)
axb6, or the pawn taking the rook, is actually a losing move because White can simply play Nd3, and Black cannot promote either of the pawns. So instead, Black had to play c4, as Nelson mentioned, because it prevents Nd3.
You pick beautiful studies and assignments, really! If I may advise, please add the author in each assignment each time. The retrograde problems are also beautiful, for example by the German mathematician and teacher Werner Keim. But some are very, very difficult to solve. They require a high IQ and especially patience. I believe they are harder logic problems than Einstein himself invented!
I think what Chris is saying is not that it's a myth, but that it is an inherently flawed concept, because the testing administered to measure it creates an IQ for the individual taking it, but IQ only measures your performance on the test, not your intelligence. You then have to justify that IQ is able to represent intelligence, but you've already established a bias that completely destroys that notion, which is that it is reliant on the test to measure it. Then you have to prove that the test measures intelligence, but it doesn't; It only generates an IQ. What you're then left with is a self-contained system that can't measure anything besides itself. Would you trust the police to self-audit? Would you trust a child with the power to generate cookies out of thin air to never eat one of those cookies? That's ultimately what the test is, and why IQ is bunk. You also have to consider that the test has origins in eugenics, and is used to justify eugenics, and you then have an ouroboros that's also a basilisk.
In the puzzle 4 : Right before the double diagonal pin white can play Kd8 and if Qd1+ or Qd3+ (Qc1, Qc2 gives us free queen and we're winning) then we do Kc8, if black plays either Qd6, Qd7+, Qd8+ or even Qg3,Qh3 we take it with the queen or the bishop and we're completely winning otherwise it's Qb8# checkmate. It gives the same results as the double pin but with a different way and less flashy
13:49 What about pawn g5 check, if the pawn or bishop takes knight g4 check and king moves back and then rook h3 checkmate.. am I missing smth? (only exception if knight or rook takes the g5 pawn... hmm ok I got it..)
In #2 I'd be interested in the scenario the rook d2 is ignored for bishop to then take the a5 pawn. It seems a bad move at first but makes the king just a tiny bit more defensible.... though that may still be a loss given a few more turns.
Nope, ...Nc2 is still checkmate. The king is trapped at a3 as it still cannot move to b4 because of the rook at b8 and the checkmating knight at c2, it cannot move to b3 because of the pawn at c4 and again, the rook at b8, and it cannot move to a4 because of the bishop at c6. The checkmating knight at c2 can no longer be captured by the white rook at h2 because it is now blocked by the black rook at d2.
What I like about #1 is that it highlights how important positioning is in chess. It's simple, but it's the best example of "it doesn't matter what you have if you don't know how to use it"
Puzzle 4: Bishop c6 can stop this pin and give check, which forces the king to move while also opening their queen, if you take the queen then its game over for white.
for puzzle 1 couldn’t black protect f7 by placing the pawn from e5 to e6? then if white still decides to check with knight pawn takes him and if knight takes pawn then black night on f8 could take white knight
Some fantastic puzzles there Nelson thx I was wondering how that last one was gonna top them all but amazingly it totally did XD on that last one imagine if you did all that then ran out of time just before you got the chance to play Knight g5...
For Puzzle number 6, if you follow up Rook to h3 with Bishop to e6, is there any way that black can get out of that predicament that would stop the knight to F3 checkmate on turn 3?
In puzzle 3, can't white prevent the pawns promoting by doing rook to D7 followed by rook D1 at the point you paused the video (after knight takes rook and pawn pushed on C)? Edit: sorry, F7 not D7.
18:45 The first move I looked at was Nd4 before noticing that bishop. For just a moment, imagine coming up with that sequence of moves only to play freaking Nd4. That's the stuff of (k)nightmares. Lmao
Actual position from a Giri vs. Lagrave game: White to play and win: 2K5/8/4k3/4P1pp/8/8/8/4R3 w - - 0 1 (Rather obviously optimal play from black is assumed.) It's relatively easy for a GM level player, but really hard for even a medium-level player to see.
@pigsty The b pawn can be prevented from providing support using the a pawn. Example. 1. axb6 Nd3 2. c4 Nc1 3. b5 a3 Pawns blockaded and no progress can be made. There are a few possible lines but the bottom line is that the Knight cannot be allowed to move to d3, as then they are able to blockade and hold the position, which is why pawn to c4 rather than taking the hanging Rook is Black's only chance at a win.
The Knight simply advances past the White Knight, delivering checkmate! Remember, that's what White is trying to AVOID, so they HAVE to take the Rook, which means White is in zugzwang!
The king hunt was very enjoyable, and it's the only one of these puzzles that I could work out in my head straight after pressing the pause button. I love trivial 9-move checkmates that I can solve in my head. :)
in the puzzle 3, the "winning move" doesnt do much if the rook doesnt take the f5 pawn right away. If the rook slides back to g3 or g2 black has no way of making a queen. If f6 pawn takes the knight, rook takes back. If the f6 pawn simply pushes to f7, knight goes e6 and covers it from making a queen. Then if the pawn on f5 takes the knight the rook moves to the f file and covers the making of the queen. Im pretty sure I didnt miss anything but idk. It only works if the rook takes f5 right away
Question: At 06:00 why Black doesn't play Knight at D3 at this point in order to block the Pawns in the next move? I can see then the Pawn to C4 (Knight threat + Check) but wont it be a different game that way? Maybe White can win this way?
The first one was easy to find, as black's king is trapped in the corner by his own troops and that suggested a smothered mate. The second one is absolutely mind-boggling. What a wonderful tactical sacrifice The third is an immortal endgame position, it stunned me the first time I saw it as well
I am a begginer and I do not understand why in the 3rd puzzle,after rook takes b6, why black does not play pawn (the one that is in A7) takes b6. Can someone explain?
All great, but the last ones were the best! Some information on #3: it was a game Tylkowski - Wojciechowski, Poznań 1931 and has a "twin brother": Ortueta - Sanz, Madrid 1933. Found in the book "Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics", which I highly recommend!
in puzzle 3, when black first time push the pawn(in 5:57), can white responses knight to d3 ? if black push the behind pawn, knight to e1 to stop pawn pushing
Sorry to tell you that the first puzzle you were incorrect on. Black moves bishop to f6 in his turn. Allowing him to move king to g7 when he is put into check on the following turn. Black wins.
Honestly that second puzzle was mind boggling, I put it in before you solved it and never considered that the rook can’t actually take, I was so stuck but thanks for sharing this with us, big fan ❤
For puzzle 2, 1. Qe2 sets up the pawn mate or a ladder mate but there’s 1 move for white to prevent them without also losing any material. Curious if anyone can spot it.
Black: Has 100 queens and a very good defense
White: Has 1 pawn and 1 king
Chess players: Now, who do you think is winning here
"yOu Can'T haVE a HuNDrEd qUeENs" 🤓🤓🤓
I would be curious to see the current chessboard lol
There could be only 9 queens In maximum but impossible to get also.
You can’t have 100 queens, because of two reasons: the board has 64 squares and 9 queens is the maximum amount of queens. But it is true, that the imbalance of points is very great.
I get it guys. There's no Santa guys I get it
Number 8 is the definition of “If you see a checkmate, look for a better one.”
So true XD
@@Charlie_the_dog pp l lol poo
@@Charlie_the_dog llp
@@Charlie_the_dog I have pl
@@Charlie_the_dog I
The idea that those pawns in the last one turned from king escort to prison made it 100% the best puzzle I've ever seen.
I'd quit forever if someone violated me like that
@@hirepikepower36 nah i'd let them mate me for the fun
The last one was so much better than checkmate in one lol
That indeed was a beautiful iron cage of pawns surrounding their own king. Immediate checkmate would have been too bland. 🤣🤣
😀😃😄😁😆🥹😅😂🤣🥲☺️😊
It looks amazing. End result is the same though
The last one making you trap yourself 🤣
My advice: don't get cute - just checkmate.
The last puzzle really brings a new meaning to "if you see a good move, look for a better one"
Nakamura would like #7
The five knight checkmate, an essential technique for every chess player before they can ever imagine converting positional advantages
The last one is the epitome of “if you see a checkmate, look for a better one.”
That last one would just be a cruel way to end the game.
In #5, the hidden motive of White's first move is truly remarkable.
I was going to ask about that. What was the purpose of it?
@@valerius88 12:32 so that the King is on a dark square so we can line our dark square bishop on a dark square.
@@valerius88 To win an extra tempo for the bishop's maneuver h4-e1-c3. Time - the third dimension in chess ;-)
Yeah at first I thought it was a mistake as it seemed like a useless waste of a knight. It was a sacrifice of a knight as it put the Black King on a black space.
0:00 highlight
0:26 intro
1:21 puzzle 1 - one pawn vs black’s entire army!
2:40 puzzle 2 - please take the rook!
5:02 puzzle 3 - unstoppable double isolated pawns!
8:36 puzzle 4 - a double diagonal pin!
11:35 puzzle 5 - who skewers first?
13:14 puzzle 6 - the greatest king chase in history
15:10 puzzle 7 - a knightmare!
17:22 puzzle 8 - the iron cage of Tamerlane
Two of the first books I read were "The Chess Companion" and "Practical Chess Endings" by Irving Chernev. I was really lucky to come to those first, because they were both filled with amazing studies like this. They give a feeling for what is possible even in the simplest positions! Thanks for a great video! I had not seen any of these. Put up some sui-mates! Where one side forces the other side to give checkmate against his will!
As an ultru super mega novice player who probably scores at a -450, that last puzzle absolutely blows my mind away.
Amazing stuff, sir. Keep up the good work, you make these really interesting!
Hey Nelson! These are my favorite of your videos. I know it's a little more work but could you post pgns for puzzle videos like this in the future in the description? I'm just not good enough at visuslization for some of the harder moves and remaking the position is a chore especially when there are 8 of them! Thanks so much and keep making puzzle/endgame study videos!
7. 15:11 Black defends better with bK moves which allow wQ checks (in that they force White to take longer) rather than those which allow wN checks.
2 g8=N+ Kg5 is better than 2 g8=N+ Kh7 #13
4 Nxg4+ Kh7 allows #4 as you showed, but 4 Nxg4+ Kg5 makes it #10.
Wow! Some of those really blew my mind! Fantastic stuff. I feel like I’m going to be on the look out for that double pin idea. Slim chance, but it “could” turn up in a game.
Viktor Korchnoi - Mijo Udovcic (1967)
I first read about cross pins years ago when I was learning tactics and I thought they would come up quite often if I looked for them over the board, much like skewers and pins. It turns out that they are incredibly rare, but I had one game where I got one by accident when my opponent made an attack that made me think I had to resign, but then I spotted the only move that didn't lose. In fact, it caused my opponent to resign! It's a really weird feeling when you get in that situation, as the person who had the initiative suddenly finds themself hopelessly lost, while the other one that was under pressure makes a desperate move that accidentally turns out to be a crushing blow.
Puzzle 2 starting at 4:20 gets even more neat if you look at the plays by white not centered on the black rook.
W Qe3, takes the threatening knight, but leaves the pawn mate on board for black
W Nd4, similar result, protects that same square but pawn mates
W pawn b3, would normally give king an escape path from the pawn mate, except that cleverly placed rook is now actually doing something and blocking that escape path
This mainly comes from the fact that you have two separate mating threats.
Can't white just move the bishop on b4 to c5?
Doesn't that avoid both threats
@@mrjingles2487 Nc2?
In puzzle 3, the idea that white will take the bishop with the rook doesn’t seem to make sense. Black will simply capture the rook with the pawn on a7, right? What am I missing?
Yeah I was stumped on this one as well, since the ones he showed seemed to be such "obvious bad moves" compared to just taking the rook. So I looked it up and capturing the rook as you described is indeed no bad move at all, actually "the best one" if one disregards moving the pawn forward, so I don't understand why it wasn't shown. Naturally the only good move left for white will be to move the knight to d3 to block the pawn as well as saving itself.
So you're not missing anything. It would lead to a pretty even end-game, and is in no way a bad move by black.
I feel this could have been emphasized a bit more when he showed the resulting moves.
Noticed that myself
@@arsenic1987 yes, but c4 is so so much better since after you queen after the sequence of moves, there is a fork of the knight and rook. (Or maybe king and rook I don't remember) so c4 is much better than axb6
@@justsaadunoyeah1234 Nc1.
That was a gorgeous smothered checkmate (#8). 🤣🤣
the 5 knights puzzle is just a normal saturday afternoon for hikaru
True thats what i thought 😂
The second one actually reminds me of an advanced type of tactic where your opponent has two lines of "influence" but by putting a piece in both of those lines, you block _one_ of them, regardless of whether or not the piece is defended. It's a pretty cool tactic, actually.
I believe it's called interference
Position 2 is from the post-mortem analysis of a blitz game between Koskinen (which is a common Finnish name, not to be confused with the chess player Henri Koskinen in the databases, who was born in 1964 - so likely the first name Henri is wrong in my sources) and Juha Kasanen, Helsinki 1967.
how come its not just Nc2#?
chess gm in the comments for the clutch
@@hendrikusendrique2290 rook is on the row and would gobble the knight
What if there was another Henri Koskinen? Henri also sounds like a common first name
@@NotSomeJustinWithoutAMoustache That also might be possible.
12:50 Here the best move for black is Kb3, not a1. But it's still a win for white, because of the extra pawn.
3:20 Ami I missing something, but woudidnt knight to C2 be a 1 move checkmate, as well as fork 3 pieces?
This is what I'm here to ask.
Someone else found it. Rook at H2.
Aaaaaaand he literally says it later in the video, haha! Serves me right for trying to figure it out first (and failing on that detail).
I don’t understand how you guys cant see the rook.
Your pick of studies and compositions are amazing.
Though that line of "Want to be 1500+ to read this book" made me go. "Welp never getting that book then."
I very recently started getting into chess thanks to your videos, great stuff, love your explanation of all the puzzles and making the info accessible
At 6:05, There is another variation. If Nd3, then c4+ Rxb6 cxd3 and the 2 connected pawns on the 6th rank cannot be stopped.
Yes, good eye. I saw that also.
The last puzzle is my favorite
Counterplay idea for black in position 4 (note: it may be just a slight hope in hell due to the trashy position for black but with the right counterplay there’s a chance that black can win)
So I’ll go from the start of the puzzle:
1. c6, kb8
2. kd8/kd7, b2
3. c7+, ka7 (this move is critical as it let’s black promote on the next move giving him a small chance to use some counterplay or causing problems for white as one opening and black brings their queen into the game)
4. c8=Q (idk, what else would he play), b8=Q
And bam both have queens, white can probably force a the mate mentioned above with continuous checks but it does better the position for black if it’s even the slightest bit.
Puzzle 3: Why are we attacking the rook after white’s second move, when we could have just captured it after white’s first move? This pawn has already shown it’s not interested in playing to win.
if you are talking about when rook takes the bishop, you can't because then knight goes d3, and there is no moves for black to open space to get a queen, if you move the b pawn(that took the rook) you lose protection on c5, if you move any of the c pawns, knight just goes c1 and blocks the way, if after that you try using the b pawn, he can go until he is captured by the white pawn, and on b3 the white pawn is protected by the knight, he can capture your pawn if you use a pawn on c4 to capture it, and defend against c2 becoming a queen at the same time, so you need to stop the knight from moving to d3, the same kind of reasoning stop the knight from capturing your pawn when you move it to c4, it looks like a good idea to capture, but white would lose control over critical space and black can get a queen safely.
That bishop from puzzle 4 was the embodiment of the meme where the soldier shields the boy from the bullets with his body
In puzzle 3 (isolated pawns ) the a7 pawn could have taken the rookie on b6
That would be a blunder, because black needs to convert a pawn into a queen to win. If black takes the rook, white's knight can move to d3 and stop the advanced pawn from queening on c1. White would be up a knight and black would have no chance of winning. That's why black put his rook en prise in the first place. He wants to stop the pawns, and it's worth giving up the rook in order to do that.
oh thx i didnt see that@@AutPen38
In puzzle #3 winning move for white is to move horse to d4 and with this move he block two powns from queening and probably win with horse and 3 powns
Me who knows they won’t solve any puzzles but watches anyways
I only solved the 1st one
I've already solved the 2nd one. The puzzle literally gives itself away in the name!
Rook to H8 solves the puzzle, and, if White takes the bait, the Queen checkmates immediately after!
Nvm xd
@@lotzy6107 Chess for Soul did a video on the Tamerlane Cage.
@6:08 what if, as white, I just moved my Rook to D7, then to D1. Would that work in preventing a Queen or am I missing something? Puzzle 3
Yeah... I worked every scenario after that move and they are definitely stoppable with that move (of course from that point on - after you sacrifice the black Rook). No matter what black does with that move I can stop the Pawn from promotion.
This is over a year late, but nope, this idea doesn’t work. If instead of capturing the Bishop on b6 you went Rd7 like you suggest, black plays c4+ because the Bishop on b6 is lined up on the white king, so you don’t actually get to play Rd1 after Rd7 because you have to move your king out of check, then black takes the knight, then you play Rd1, then black plays c3, and you have two connected passed pawns against the rook. The rook can’t stop both of them, and there’s nothing left for white to do, there’s no checks on black’s king, and black will inevitably get a queen and win. Don’t know if you looked into this further after posting your original comment, but hope this info is helpful!
@@hfactor66 Thanks. That's dedication. I appreciate a response even if it was a year later. Amazing!
8. As you say, White has many mating moves from the diagram position. Even after 1 f3+ gxf3, White has 2 Ng5#/Re5#/Qe5#. I wonder, was this a medieval position? (It must at any rate be from after modern bishops were introduced into chess.) For problems where White sacrifices lots in order to force Black to wall their king in, allowing a mid-board smothered mate, I suggest
* Konrad Bayer's "Immortal Problem" (3Q4/5q1k/4ppp1/2Kp1N1B/RR6/3P1r2/4nP1b/3b4 #9)
* Johann Christoffel van Gool's more modern (1979) setting of the same idea (2n1QN2/2Np1pk1/1b1p1p2/1Kp1B1p1/1R3p2/2P1r3/1r1nPRb1/1B5q #12).
Puzzle 8 wasn't a checkmate, but rather a dignified funeral, worthy of a king.
Puzzle no 2: Rb5 looks winning initially. The threat of axb4, then R-a5. However, it gives white the time to play b3 and the king escapes to b2. It is checking all the combinations that makes the puzzles hard. Rb5 would win a against a novice or just make the game really interesting.
Why can't we take with a pawn on b5, bishop has to take if im not mistaken. Then we just take the bishop with a queen and it's a mate, no? Why can't we do that
@@user-xd7gs5uq5y white queen is protecting that diagonal. You could do that, but white queen takes black queen, black rook takes white queen, then king is free to take black rook
1. ... Rb5 2. b3 Nd1 3. Qxd1 Qxd1 4. Kb2 Qxf3
"How do people come up with this?" - i think the answer is they start from the end move+ condition. E.g. what's the MOST number of knights I can have to securely checkmate the king? then they study every move backwards to find the most beautiful one. Later add pieces which look like they do something but in reality they do not and voilá... easier said than done lol
Any number of knights depending on position
18:32 you should have promoted to a bishop not a queen 😂😂
I really enjoyed this video 😉😉
Agreed. lol
3:19 isn't KC2 an immediate Check-Mate?
The third position was shown in Gotham's video, love to see such an incredible combination again
Can I know why the pawn at a7 couldn't just take the rook at b6? instead of pawn c5 to c6
@@biscy03I believe it's because if the knight can get to d3 after you take the rook, even if you push C4 afterwards it can move back to C1 to stop you from Queening. Then the endgame is much tougher, but I think black can still win it. But it's still optimal to play the moves in the video.
Edit: Actually black cant win here. Even in that position once the knight stops you from queening, then it's over. After white pushes A3, black has no way of getting the pawn in the B file past to kick the knight away, before the white king can get over to help. Blacks pawn on the E file can be stopped by the king as well. Best black can hope for there is a stalemate.
@@Ace-hs3ux Thank you so much for answering! I really couldn't think any moves ahead apart from, "rook is ded, this is a win" xDDD But I get your point now
White the third puzzle: rook to b6
Black pawn: im gonna pretend i didn't saw that
In puzzle 3, after Rb6 I get the sequence shown but seemed odd not to mention that black could just take it with their pawn on a7. Isn't that also winning? (the knight can't stop the pawns on its own)
axb6, or the pawn taking the rook, is actually a losing move because White can simply play Nd3, and Black cannot promote either of the pawns. So instead, Black had to play c4, as Nelson mentioned, because it prevents Nd3.
@@ranchoabilities7928but after nd3 can't you then just push pawn to c4? Same thing?
@@autismfromtheInside Nc1
18:55 I would have lost the last one with the final move Nd6 instead of Ng5 smh
You pick beautiful studies and assignments, really! If I may advise, please add the author in each assignment each time. The retrograde problems are also beautiful, for example by the German mathematician and teacher Werner Keim. But some are very, very difficult to solve. They require a high IQ and especially patience. I believe they are harder logic problems than Einstein himself invented!
IQ is a myth
@@ChrisJones-rd4wb You are provably wrong.
@@ChrisJones-rd4wb iq isnt a myth, its a system of meassurement.
@@ChrisJones-rd4wb It’s real. It’s not a great system, but it does in fact exist.
I think what Chris is saying is not that it's a myth, but that it is an inherently flawed concept, because the testing administered to measure it creates an IQ for the individual taking it, but IQ only measures your performance on the test, not your intelligence. You then have to justify that IQ is able to represent intelligence, but you've already established a bias that completely destroys that notion, which is that it is reliant on the test to measure it. Then you have to prove that the test measures intelligence, but it doesn't; It only generates an IQ. What you're then left with is a self-contained system that can't measure anything besides itself. Would you trust the police to self-audit? Would you trust a child with the power to generate cookies out of thin air to never eat one of those cookies? That's ultimately what the test is, and why IQ is bunk. You also have to consider that the test has origins in eugenics, and is used to justify eugenics, and you then have an ouroboros that's also a basilisk.
In the puzzle 4 :
Right before the double diagonal pin white can play Kd8 and if Qd1+ or Qd3+ (Qc1, Qc2 gives us free queen and we're winning) then we do Kc8, if black plays either Qd6, Qd7+, Qd8+ or even Qg3,Qh3 we take it with the queen or the bishop and we're completely winning otherwise it's Qb8# checkmate.
It gives the same results as the double pin but with a different way and less flashy
Puzzle 6 was a real Check Republic. 🙃
13:49 What about pawn g5 check, if the pawn or bishop takes knight g4 check and king moves back and then rook h3 checkmate.. am I missing smth? (only exception if knight or rook takes the g5 pawn... hmm ok I got it..)
In #2 I'd be interested in the scenario the rook d2 is ignored for bishop to then take the a5 pawn. It seems a bad move at first but makes the king just a tiny bit more defensible.... though that may still be a loss given a few more turns.
Nope, ...Nc2 is still checkmate. The king is trapped at a3 as it still cannot move to b4 because of the rook at b8 and the checkmating knight at c2, it cannot move to b3 because of the pawn at c4 and again, the rook at b8, and it cannot move to a4 because of the bishop at c6. The checkmating knight at c2 can no longer be captured by the white rook at h2 because it is now blocked by the black rook at d2.
Yeah exactly
A beautiful clearance sacrifice with Rd2!
17:08
Chess vibes: you have (k)nights on the board
Me: Five (k)nights at freddys!
Sorry for the horrible joke
wouldn't've been horrible if you just said "5 knights at Freddie's"
0:21 Also bishop to g2 is checkmate
Not quite, the F pawn can block.
Oh ok
Puzzle 7 is 5 Knights at Freddy's
The black bishop just looking în the corner at the last one lol😂
What I like about #1 is that it highlights how important positioning is in chess. It's simple, but it's the best example of "it doesn't matter what you have if you don't know how to use it"
Can’t the pawn move to e6 ?
they are going the opposite way
10:06 whaf if insead of promoting to queen we move the king first? Avoiding check than making running around the pawn?
Didn't Puzzle 3 come up in one of the Stump the Chump episodes?
The 5th one was literally
"Call an ambulance, but not for me"
Also I solved the puzzles :) some with skill and some with luck. (Tip: If you see a strange puzzle just make a move that seems like a blunder)
Puzzle 4: Bishop c6 can stop this pin and give check, which forces the king to move while also opening their queen, if you take the queen then its game over for white.
When you have mate in 1, look for better
for puzzle 1 couldn’t black protect f7 by placing the pawn from e5 to e6? then if white still decides to check with knight pawn takes him and if knight takes pawn then black night on f8 could take white knight
Puzzle 7's name should be five knights at Freddy's
This are honestly plays you might never do, BUT they teach you how to think outside the box to win
Some fantastic puzzles there Nelson thx I was wondering how that last one was gonna top them all but amazingly it totally did XD on that last one imagine if you did all that then ran out of time just before you got the chance to play Knight g5...
For Puzzle number 6, if you follow up Rook to h3 with Bishop to e6, is there any way that black can get out of that predicament that would stop the knight to F3 checkmate on turn 3?
This is the line I saw and I was dumbfounded that it was not the solution.
Black can move pawn to f6 to free space for king
who else saw the solution to the first puzzle immediately
In puzzle 3, can't white prevent the pawns promoting by doing rook to D7 followed by rook D1 at the point you paused the video (after knight takes rook and pawn pushed on C)?
Edit: sorry, F7 not D7.
18:45 The first move I looked at was Nd4 before noticing that bishop. For just a moment, imagine coming up with that sequence of moves only to play freaking Nd4. That's the stuff of (k)nightmares. Lmao
It's never too late to blunder.
Nd6*
Actual position from a Giri vs. Lagrave game: White to play and win: 2K5/8/4k3/4P1pp/8/8/8/4R3 w - - 0 1
(Rather obviously optimal play from black is assumed.)
It's relatively easy for a GM level player, but really hard for even a medium-level player to see.
why not take the rook early on in puzzle three?
6:11 if you recapture the rook white can go Nd3 Nc1 and your pawns are stuck
@pigsty The b pawn can be prevented from providing support using the a pawn.
Example.
1. axb6 Nd3
2. c4 Nc1
3. b5 a3
Pawns blockaded and no progress can be made.
There are a few possible lines but the bottom line is that the Knight cannot be allowed to move to d3, as then they are able to blockade and hold the position, which is why pawn to c4 rather than taking the hanging Rook is Black's only chance at a win.
At the second one why didn't he Just took the rook prior when it captured bishop??
in puzzle 2 what if you don't take the rook?
pawn takes b4 or knight c2 mate you can’t defend both taking rook is the only way to delay it
The Knight simply advances past the White Knight, delivering checkmate! Remember, that's what White is trying to AVOID, so they HAVE to take the Rook, which means White is in zugzwang!
The king hunt was very enjoyable, and it's the only one of these puzzles that I could work out in my head straight after pressing the pause button. I love trivial 9-move checkmates that I can solve in my head. :)
5 knights at Freddy's
the 4th puzzle at 10:44: why not pawn to B6 with intention of mating with queen to A7, (or at least just win a queen by sacrificing the bishop)?
Day 2 of watching chess videos and i am already interested in playing.
in the puzzle 3, the "winning move" doesnt do much if the rook doesnt take the f5 pawn right away. If the rook slides back to g3 or g2 black has no way of making a queen. If f6 pawn takes the knight, rook takes back. If the f6 pawn simply pushes to f7, knight goes e6 and covers it from making a queen. Then if the pawn on f5 takes the knight the rook moves to the f file and covers the making of the queen. Im pretty sure I didnt miss anything but idk. It only works if the rook takes f5 right away
if Rb7, c2 Nd3 cxd3 ( c4 pawn ) Rc7 and d2!
i've seen Puzzle 3 in one of Levi's recap and it was a spectacular game that rook sacrifice was amazing and there was nothing for white to stop it
It's insane idea...1 in a billion
I think there is something...
Question: At 06:00 why Black doesn't play Knight at D3 at this point in order to block the Pawns in the next move? I can see then the Pawn to C4 (Knight threat + Check) but wont it be a different game that way? Maybe White can win this way?
Yeah you are right.
The first one was easy to find, as black's king is trapped in the corner by his own troops and that suggested a smothered mate.
The second one is absolutely mind-boggling. What a wonderful tactical sacrifice
The third is an immortal endgame position, it stunned me the first time I saw it as well
at the end the way he said "oohhh.. i realy love chess" so wholesome 🥰
this guy does need more attention.
8 is too many for 1 video. 3 or maximum 5 is better imo
I am a begginer and I do not understand why in the 3rd puzzle,after rook takes b6, why black does not play pawn (the one that is in A7) takes b6. Can someone explain?
Last one was just show off
All great, but the last ones were the best! Some information on #3: it was a game Tylkowski - Wojciechowski, Poznań 1931 and has a "twin brother": Ortueta - Sanz, Madrid 1933.
Found in the book "Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics", which I highly recommend!
Hi
In second puzzle cant u just play knight to c2 check mate? If im wrong sorry im kinda new
Firrrssssttttt
In puzzle #3 at 6:12 what prevents the a pawn from just simply capturing the rook?
The smoother mate puzzle can end in a draw if black lets their time run out, it would be timeout vs insufficient material lmao
Is puzzle 3 from Wojciechowsky - Tylkowski?
in puzzle three, why didn't you take the rook with the a2 pawn when its so clearly vulnerable?
in puzzle 3, when black first time push the pawn(in 5:57), can white responses knight to d3 ? if black push the behind pawn, knight to e1 to stop pawn pushing
if black pushes that pawn, white is in check
Puzzle 6 and 8 really defines chess as an art .
Sorry to tell you that the first puzzle you were incorrect on. Black moves bishop to f6 in his turn. Allowing him to move king to g7 when he is put into check on the following turn. Black wins.
The piece on g7 is a pawn.
There are no pieces that can move to f6
I have a question on puzzle 2 what is stopping knight on E3 from going to c2 checkmate
checkmate with a gazillion knights was a fun one to watch
Honestly that second puzzle was mind boggling, I put it in before you solved it and never considered that the rook can’t actually take, I was so stuck but thanks for sharing this with us, big fan ❤
For puzzle 2, 1. Qe2 sets up the pawn mate or a ladder mate but there’s 1 move for white to prevent them without also losing any material. Curious if anyone can spot it.
What?