Aug-04-25 R Weston vs J Grant, 1994 
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| TheaN: Now <this> is a proper sac and Monday CG <38....Rxg1+ 39.Kxg1 Qd1+ 40.Qf1 (Kf2 Bd4#) Bd4+ 41.Kh1 Qxf1#>. <An Englishman: Good Evening: The hardest move to find in this game? 2...Nh6. Seriously--this is the only game in the database with Grant's Defense (might as well ... |
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Jul-31-25 G Tringov vs V Urdinov, 1998
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| TheaN: <scormus: <declining ... 27 Kg8 28 Qh4> I thought 28 Qxg6+ fxg6 29 Bd5+ Kxh7 30 Rh1# looked pretty cool. Of course, B could delay it with 29 ... Qf7> Missed that detail completely, probably because it's not relevant for the combination itself, nice find. Objectively the ... |
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Jul-30-25 A Beliavsky vs B Aizenberg, 2022
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| TheaN: <Sally Simpson> good write up, yeah it's inconsistent at best. That in itself is fine, but if there is some algorithm behind it that determines if something is a puzzle it needs to be a lot more consistent. To me a few aspects matter: 1. A sac for a successful mating attack is ... |
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Jul-29-25 A Graf vs S Kiselev, 1988
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| TheaN: <morea: I don't see the point of this puzzle. White is already up in material (...) doesn't gain anything more (...) many other moves work just as well> Well said. Exactly this. Biggest issue I have with the feature recently, I have no idea how positions are picked for puzzles ... |
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Jul-28-25 V Rauzer vs Ragozin, 1936
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| TheaN: Monday blindness, though this is definitely not regular Monday level: I played 26.Rxe5! properly but somehow still pictured two rooks on the first rank so 26....Rxe5 27.Qh7+?! Kf8 28.Rf1?? and losing. 27.Qh7+?! does win because the bishops are too strong, 27....Kf8 28.Bb4+ Kf7 29.Bg6+ |
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Jul-24-25 V Bernadskiy vs Y K Erdogmus, 2025
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| TheaN: <alshatranji: A question about Stockfish. (...) Is this the difference that one ply makes?> Essentially you answered it yourself, yes, that's it. Depending on computing strength the engine simply isn't far enough (in pure brute force calculation, if NNUE is taken into the ... |
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Jul-23-25 A Neverov vs Kharlov, 1990
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| TheaN: Spotted that Black can relay his most powerful piece to the attack with <29....Rxc4!>. Threatens Rh4+ which isn't really stoppable unless taken, so <30.Bxc4 Qd4 -+> and White has no proper defense against Qg4+ and Rh8. However... I put this one into infinite SF for a ... |
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Jul-22-25 Mikhalevski vs J Degraeve, 1991
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| TheaN: < murkia: 32...Be4+ allows Black to simplify and win an easy end game. Bit of a grind but the game move isn't an easy win. A premature resignation?> Also, what endgame do you mean exactly? This endgame: 32....Be4+ 33.Bg2 Bxg2+? =, this is already 0, 34.Rxg2 Qxg2+ 35.Qxg2 Rxg2 ... |
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Jul-21-25 Botvinnik vs A Byron, 1981
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| TheaN: What kind of makes this a Monday puzzle is that White's already up an exchange at the start. For a brief moment I thought White's a piece down, but nope. With that in mind <34.Rxg5+> is a very simple simplification, 34....fxg5 35.Qg7# and <34....Kf7 (Kf8 35.Ng6+ +-; else ... |
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Jul-16-25 Shulman vs Van Wely, 2009
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| TheaN: This one took me a while, as you look for something more destructive. However, it eventually becomes clear White's fighting a disadvantage (pawn down, first rank mate threats) in the original position, so there's no time for exchange sacs and winning rooks. Still <28.Rxd5!> to, ... |
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Kibitzing
