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Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina  I looked at the puzzle from ChessGames.com today, but I didn't understand the solution. Is the goal for white to achieve checkmate in one move? If the white queen takes the pawn at h7, how does that checkmate black? Can't the black king just move down and take the white queen on the next move? It doesn't look like h7 is threatened. What am I missing?
I can see checkmate happening by moving the white rook to h3 on the next move though. Was that basically the point? To find the move that makes checkmate inevitable?
I'm not familiar with chess puzzles. When you see a puzzle, what exactly are you trying to do? Achieve checkmate in one move? Find the best tactical move? |
The goal was to guess what Sergey Karjakin played in the real game. The benefit for you is understanding the "why," and I think you did that: 26... Kxh7 27.Rh3#, as moving along H will keep the king in check by the rook, and 27...Kg6 or 27....Kg8 will put it into check by the Knight in e7.
I didn't know this pattern was called "
Anastasia's Mate," so I guess I learned something too!
The objectives in chess puzzles are diverse. Generally it's to find checkmates in one or various moves. Sometimes, like in the one that was up today, it was to find the right move made during a game — that it was a mate in 2 was a coincidence. You may also want to look into the previous moves to see how one could have avoided getting checkmated.
If you're capable of identifying the patterns in a puzzle, you'll be able to do that in a regular game. IIRC, although I cannot find the source right now (I'm sure it's Chessbase.com), Vladmir Kramnik used tactical puzzles during his training for the World Championship in Elista, 2006. He has severe back problems, so he solved those puzzles well into his 3rd or 4th hour of practice to test if he could still think straight.