Answer To Chess Endgame Puzzle #32

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

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

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

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

Chess Endgame Puzzle #32

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

Answer To Online Chess Endgame Puzzle #31

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

Chess Endgame Puzzle #31

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

chess-puzzle #31 p. 115