

Material: White has a 1-point lead in material.Instead, we simply want to familiarize ourselves with the situation at hand by looking at two of the most fundamental aspects of a position, namely: We are not looking to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the position here. There is no need to spend a lot of time on this step. Therefore the purpose of the first step is to somewhat familiarize yourself with the position before you continue. When you’re presented with a chess puzzle you’ve never seen before, you have no point of reference–as you would have had if it were your own game. Step 1: Do a Quick Evaluation of the Position Note: If you spot the solution along the way (before you completed all the steps), you should still follow the whole process, to the end, as to not miss the actual purpose and potential benefit of the lesson. It would be a good idea (optional) to pack the position on a real chessboard to help you study this lesson: Diagram above: White just played 1.Qe2. I’ll discuss the details of each step at the hand of an example. Example of the Method to Solve Chess Puzzles Of course these steps won’t always be applicable to every chess puzzle you do, but they serve as a general guideline to help you get maximum training value from solving puzzles. 8 Steps to Solve Chess PuzzlesĪt a first glance the process may seem a bit long but since the steps follow a completely logical order, you will get used to it very quickly. My tactical patterns bundle deal is the perfect resource to master these patterns. It should also be said that your improving your knowledge of tactical patterns will help you become more efficient in solving puzzles.

Therefore, you must do more to make the process of solving chess puzzles as instructive as possible–and that is what this lesson is all about. (In an actual game no-one will tell you when there’s a tactic to look for). When you’re presented with a puzzle–you already know there is a tactic in the position.

However, I want to suggest a puzzle solving method that will turn every tactical puzzle you do into an instructive exercise that will make a lasting improvement to your playing strength.Īlthough solving chess puzzles should be an important part of your chess training, there is a well-known problem with it. This approach is not inherently bad and you can definitely improve your tactical skill this way. If you’re like most people, you will approach a chess puzzle by calculating a few attacking moves until you, hopefully, uncover the solution. What would you do? (I’ll use the position in this diagram to present you with a logical method that will transform the way you approach tactical puzzles, for the better.) The point of this exercise is not to see how quickly you can find the solution, but rather to learn about a better way to solve chess puzzles. Here’s a quick summary of the method that I will discuss on this page:ĭiagram above: Black to move. Solving chess puzzles is a good exercise, but if you use the method I’ll discuss on this page, you will learn a lot more from every puzzle you try to solve.
#Chess puzzles mate in 2 moves with solution how to#
You will often hear how important it is to train tactics but rarely will you find guidance on how to solve chess puzzles.
