Chess General

I would suggest

1. Ne7+ Kh8
2. Nxg6#

Wrong reply.

I meant to reply to OP at with the move sequence.

BTW, some faggot on Veeky Forums uploaded a bunch of Chess books:
>I've uploaded a couple Chess-related books on various aspects of the game. ~90 in total, roughly 900 megs.
>a.desu.sh/uiwrst.zip
>Here's a complete list of the files included: codepad.org/kqTuomVD

Chess Fundamentals by Jose Capablanca is copyright free. It's available easily in descriptive notation and there's some versions updated in algebraic notation as well.

I couldn't download that.

Rh4 looks like it wins more or less instantly.

It sets up simultaneous threats of Qf3+ followed by Kg1, Rh1++, as well as Rh2+, Kg1, Rh1+, Kg2, Qh2++

So white has to do something about it. Rh1 loses to Qf3+, Kg1, Rxh1++, so white pretty much has to play gxh4.

And from there, you can worm your queen in.

So,

...Rh4,
gxh4, Qg4+ IF

Kh2, Nf3+ wins your material back right away with a fork and then some, and if he goes to h1, you can do the same with a preliminary check on h3 to bounce him to g1, and then the same knight fork applies, so pretty much the only move that doesn't lose instantly is

Kf1, but that gets into trouble because black plays Nf3, threatening the queen, and the threat of Nh2++

This is absolutely correct. Rh4 is the move.

Another puzzle. White to move.

kek

I believe Ke7 holds the draw.

The keys here to realize are

>That bishop is hugely powerful, but it can't mate on its own
>He has to use it to guard e8 or you'll queen first and win.
>your king isn't close enough to catch his pawn if he keeps running it forward
>Diagonals move "faster" in a way.
>His queening square is dark, so his bishop can't kick you out if you get there first.

So, if he wants to lock down the queening square immediately, you get

Ke7, Bb5, Kf6, Be8,Kg5, etc, you run to g1, and he can never force you out of your hole.

And if he runs his pawn up instead, you get

Ke7, g5, Kd6, g4,Kc5, g3, e7, g2, e8=Q, g1=Q+ with likely draw.

Oh, crap crap crap, he can slide his bishop the other way once he starts moving his pawn along. Give me a few minutes to think this over.

Duh duh.

When he moves to g4, THEN you push the pawn, since he now blocks his own bishop. Works out at that point.

That was a really interesting puzzle. I had to think about it for a while.

Every time the white king moves down, the black pawn must also move down or the king can catch it.

1. Ke7 g5
2. Kd6 g4

Now the bishop's path to h5 is disrupted, meaning that it can only protect the white pawn's queening square (e8) from b5.

3. e7 Bb5

We force the bishop to b5 by threatening to queen the pawn.

4. Kc5 ...

The white king does two things: chase the pawn and attack the bishop. If black protects the bishop then the white king can catch the pawn. If black moves the pawn then the white king can capture the bishop.

Variation 1: Black moves the pawn

4. ... g3
5. Kxb5 g2
6. e8=Q g1=Q

Draw

Variation 2: Black protects the bishop

4. ... Ka6
5. Kd4 g3
6. Ke3 g2
7. Kf2 g1=Q
8. Kxg1 ...

Draw
[/spoiler

How do I get good? I've been playing on and off for 10 years. At my best I was still only at 1342.

I'm not sure what the path is? Do I start with early game theory? Do puzzles all day? Just play matches?

Assume I suck as I'm sure you do.

Play games, watch games, train tactics, read a book or two.

Thanks. I know this sounds idiotic, but it all just sounds so disorganized. I wish there was a type of "curriculum". "Read this book study opennings, then train tactics while reading more, after you hit X, study endgame, then start playing games" or something else.

It's too late here, but I'll try to write something more detailed tomorrow if this thread's still up.

I almost only play Chess960, so take what I say with a pinch of salt. And there is no right or wrong way to ' learn ' chess. I don't impose any sort of formality or consistent method at all on my chess study, because I study chess and do problems for fun.

I would recommend that you do a lot of chess problems to learn while having fun. These might be directmates, or spotting a move sequence to capture one of black's pieces.

Maybe focus on only learning a few openings. For instance, if you play 1. ... d4 in response to 1. e4, you can usually force the Scandinavian defence (exd4) and you can learn a bit about the variations in which White doesn't capture the pawn. Two objectives really matter in the opening: making your pieces active and controlling the four centre squares.

Thanks. I really suck. I played 3 games since I posted this. Won two but lost to a sub 1000 player by basically giving him the conditions for mate by moving a pawn. It's like every break I take makes me worse.

what variation of chess does Veeky Forums like to play?

As I said, Chess960.

Knight at D5 to F6.
Checkmate.

So black's king goes to h8. No checkmate.