Daily Chess Puzzles

[Leo Gura]

52 minutes ago, integral said:

its basically "is the bishop really free"?

I assumed it was a trap at first but then no trap materialized.

Black can win even without taking the bishop I think.

Try to win that game without taking bishop.

Edited 3 hours ago by Leo Gura

[AtmanIsBrahman]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Puzzle 5 seems much more interesting if white's bishop at c1 was actually at b1 from the start.

Giving black a free bishop is too mich.

The point of this puzzle is recognizing your opponent's resources. You have to see that after black takes the bishop, white has bishop to c2, creating a checkmate threat while unveiling an attack on the queen from the rook. 

Here you have to see that Qg5+ is possible, saving the queen and forcing white to respond to the check. After that, black has many ways to stop white's checkmate threat.

Without seeing bishop to c2 and Qg5+, you could easily be making a blunder by taking the bishop.

Edited 2 hours ago by AtmanIsBrahman

[Leo Gura]

6 minutes ago, AtmanIsBrahman said:

The point of this puzzle is recognizing your opponent's resources. You have to see that after black takes the bishop, white has bishop to c2, creating a checkmate threat while unveiling an attack on the queen from the rook. 

Here you have to see that Qg5+ is possible, saving the queen and forcing white to respond to the check. After that, black has many ways to stop white's checkmate threat.

Without seeing bishop to c2 and Qg5+, you could easily be making a blunder by taking the bishop.

That is a devious trap. In that case the puzzle should have blocked Qg5 so the queen is truly lost.

Very sneaky but not sneaky enough.

Qg5 is too obvious once your queen is so stuck. It's the only option.

Edited 2 hours ago by Leo Gura

[integral]

49 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Black can win even without taking the bishop I think.

It feels really good for black because white's pieces are under developed and all tangled up uncoordinated.

Black got into this position by applying the pressure throughout the whole game, forcing white to constantly make concessions.

If black doesn't convert the advantage, it could easily slip away. All white needs is a couple of moves to equalize.

It's also two bishops versus two knights in an open board and white has an outside pass pawn that's gonna be pushed.

What would blacks move be then let's imagine taking the pawn in the middle?

Qxd4 Qxd4 Rxd4 Be3 and already White is untangling. So already we have to move our queen somewhere to avoid trading queens, and we can't take the pawn in the middle.

Black has a temporary positional advantage, but if there's no concrete conversion, then it's basically equal in less than a move or two.

Actually, white is up a pawn on a4 and it's an outside passed pawn, its going to be a tough defence for black.

Edited 2 hours ago by integral