Chess puzzle

No. 724

15 October 2022 9:00 am

White to play and mate in two. Composed by Bruce Leverett, Chess Life, 1968. What is White’s first move? Answers…

No. 723

8 October 2022 9:00 am

Black to play. Giorgobiani-Sivanandan, Fide Cadets U8 Girls Championship, 2022. Black has a subtle winning move in this position. What…

No. 722

1 October 2022 9:00 am

Black to play and win. A variation from the game Aronian-Ivanchuk, Julius Baer Generation Cup, September 2022. Ivanchuk could have…

No. 721

24 September 2022 9:00 am

White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Carl Schlechter, Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, 1908. What is White’s first move?…

No. 720

17 September 2022 9:00 am

White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Edith Baird, for The Chess Amateur, 1923. Answers should be…

No. 719

10 September 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Cornette-Feller, French Champion-ship, August 2022. Black has just played 13…h7-h6. How did White capitalise on this mistake?…

No. 718

3 September 2022 9:00 am

White to play and win. Composed by Alexey Troitsky, Novoye Vremya, 1895. Trapping Black’s queen looks unimaginable on such an…

No. 717

27 August 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Gormally–Claridge-Hansen, British Championships 2022 Black’s last move, Ra8-a7,was a fatal mistake. Which move won the game for…

No. 716

20 August 2022 9:00 am

Black to play. A variation from McShane-Hamitevici, Chennai 2022. I avoided this position, but lost in a different way. White…

No. 715

13 August 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Navara – Batsuren, Chennai Olympiad 2022. In this strange position Czech grandmaster David Navara found an elegant…

No. 714

6 August 2022 9:00 am

Black to play. Smirnov – Duda, Chennai Olympiad 2022. With his next move, Duda forced a decisive gain of material.…

No. 713

30 July 2022 9:00 am

White to play and mate in two. Composed by Henri Rinck, La Strategie, 1892. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk…

No. 712

23 July 2022 9:00 am

White to play and mate in two. Composed by Philip Hamilton Williams, British Chess Magazine, 1895. Answers should be emailed…

No. 711

16 July 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Short-Timman, Staunton Memorial 2008. Short played 1 Qb3, missing an unusual opportunity to cause havoc with the…

No. 710

9 July 2022 9:00 am

White to play. J. Polgar-Carlsen, Casual blitz game, Madrid 2022. Carlsen’s last move 15…Ra8-c8 was a losing blunder. How did…

No. 709

2 July 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Miles-Pritchett, Lloyds Bank Masters 1982. Tony Miles found a powerful counter to the queenside threats. What did…

No. 708

25 June 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Rezasade-Movsesian, Bundesliga 2022. White was an underdog in this game, but found a subtle winning idea. What…

No. 707

18 June 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Trent-Carlstedt, Hamburg 2022. Lawrence Trent spotted a way to deliver a quick mate. Which move did he…

No. 706

11 June 2022 9:00 am

White to play and mate in 3. Composed by Sigmund Franz Josef Lehner, 1864. There are several ways to give…

No. 705

4 June 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Giri-Praggnanandhaa, Chessable Masters 2022. A game from the preliminary stages. What did Giri play to induce resignation?…

No. 704

28 May 2022 9:00 am

Black to play. Bacrot-Anand, Bastia Rapid 2001. A spectacular blow from Anand prompted Bacrot to resign. What did he play?…

No. 703

21 May 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Vachier-Lagrave-Caruana, Bucharest 2022. The Bh4 can retreat to g3, f2 or e1. Which one is best, and…

No. 702

14 May 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Averbakh-Zita, Szczawno-Zdroj 1950. Black has just interposed Rb6-g6, so White needs an accurate finish before e3-e2 mate…

No. 701

7 May 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Reshevsky-Savon, Petropolis 1973. Reshevsky played the awful 1 Qxg6+, and resigned after 1…Bxg6. Many moves win, but…

No. 700

30 April 2022 9:00 am

White to play and draw. Composed by Jan Timman, 2011. 1 h8=Q Rxd5 wins for Black, so how does White…