Hello puzzlers! It's Saturday again which means another video analysis of the week's hardest puzzle. This puzzle requires you to hold on to many different themes: a hanging rook that you can always cash in on when the time is right, and a dangerou...
Hello everyone! Today's daily puzzle was all about exercising patience. It likely seemed very tempting to snap-capture the bishop on b8 but you always need to be aware of white's counterplay and possible threats. As always, I've posted my Saturday...
Hey everyone and happy Halloween! It's Saturday again which means another video analysis of today's daily puzzle! I felt like for a Saturday puzzle, this one was (relative to other Saturday puzzles) much more doable. What I found to be one of the ...
If you've been reading my blog for some time, you know I've made a few posts on the knight + queen smothered mate. It's a classic combination that every strong beginner/intermediate player should be aware of. If you are aware of it, then you fir...
Hi all! It's Saturday again which means a video analysis of today's daily puzzle! The lesson today? Don't snap-take pieces that look free. Analyze, even if it's only briefly, the resulting position and make sure your opponent doesn't have any tric...
Hi all! As usual for the Saturday puzzles, I've posted a video analysis instead of my usual written analysis. A very tough one today that I did not solve correctly. With the board so open and queens still on, there's a lot of possible moves to cal...
There's a famous game that was played way back in 1858 usually dubbed the "Opera Game". It was a game played by one of the greatest players who ever lived, American chess legend Paul Morphy, during an opera in France against two nobles, a Count an...
Hello everyone! In this post I'll be covering the last three daily puzzles. In today's daily puzzle, notice that black's king is perched high up in his castle all alone. He seems to have a bit of a fortress around him with his pawns but white's pi...
Hi all! It's Saturday, so that means a video analysis! Today's puzzle was a lot of fun. If you've been reading my blog for some time, you'll know I love endgames and you'll know that I find knight vs pawn endgames very interesting. In Dvor...
Happy Tuesday Puzzlers! We're currently in the easier part of the week and below I have the past three days of puzzles. I try to come up with a lesson or theme from the daily puzzle and today's puzzle really emphasizes the issues with pushing your...
Hi all! Thank you so much for the tremendous feedback you gave on last Saturday's video analysis. I got a lot of suggestions to continue doing video analysis for every Saturday puzzle as it's the most difficult and is helpful to hear someone ...
When you think of a back-rank mate you typically think of a king all alone in the back rank with three tidy pawns on the 2nd-from-the-back-rank. A rook or queen slides down the board to deliver mate! That of course is the most "traditional" type...
Often times, puzzles will be double-edged; both sides have serious threats and you must find the most forcing line to ensure that your opponent doesn't get the better of you. In today's daily puzzle, both sides have serious threats against each ot...
Hi Puzzlers! Another Saturday, another challenging puzzle. I thought today what I'd do instead of posting written analysis is post a video of the puzzle on my YouTube channel. The thought being that since Saturday puzzles are the most tricky, it...
As a quick reminder, Zugzwang is when it's your turn to move but you really wish it wasn't. That is, the current position you have is better than any future position where you move a piece. Usually we're introduced to zugzwang with endgame-type po...
Among other important practices when solving puzzles (calculating checks/captures, finding threats, etc.), it's very important to identify all loose pieces in the position. In today's puzzle, it may be surprising to learn that the only reason this...
Good Morning Puzzlers! In today's daily puzzle there's no denying black would love to teleport her queen to b2. Unfortunately, the rules of chess prohibit queens from jumping over multiple pieces so black will have to come up with a clever way t...
Ah Saturdays. The hardest day for the daily puzzle. What is it that makes a puzzle hard? There's a lot of ways. It could be that the calculation requirement is minimal but it's very hard to find the right idea. Or it could be there's a move that's...
Hello all! Well, I know I promised to post the solution back last week but my family and I decided to go on a last-minute staycation so I've been a bit away from the computer. Sooo, without further delay, let's first give some shoutouts to all of ...
Hello Puzzlers! Today's and yesterday's daily puzzles both had a very important chess motif known as clearance. I'm not sure if DailyFun intended to have two days in a row of knight clearance tactics but I like that it ended up that way because it...
Hello puzzlers! Today's daily puzzle is a great example and reminder that when you see the opportunity for a combination, make sure to calculate all possible move orders of that calculation. In the puzzle today there seems to be an opportunit...
Hello Puzzlers! In today's daily puzzle it's clear that black needs to work up some magic. He's down an entire rook so playing passively will not yield good results. What black does have going for him however is that his que...
About three weeks ago, my wife and I babysat a 14 year old boy for about a week. Of course, one of the first ideas I had to keep him entertained was to teach him how to play chess. I pulled out the Staunton set, placed the pieces side by side and ...
Today's puzzle is a great example of finding the story in the position. Once you can identify what's happening, and once you calculate all captures/checks, the right move should be obvious. What's happening? 1. Black is oh so close t...
Ok I know it's a cheesy title, but I had to do it . For those who are newer to the game, a good rule to know when calculating checks is that if you can get your opponent into double-check (that is, making a move where two of your pieces are thre...
