Let's talk chess. Who are your favorite players? What are your favorite openings? Any favorite famous chess games?

Let's talk chess. Who are your favorite players? What are your favorite openings? Any favorite famous chess games?

Also, can you solve this puzzle? White to move and win through a continuation of moves.

We've seen this one already! Get a new one.

Nf6+ Kg7
Nh5+, Kg6
Bc2+ and black gets the choice of either letting the pawn queen on d8, which is real bad, or:
... Kxh5
d8=Q, Nf7+
Ke6, Nxd8+
Kf5, e2
Be4, e1=N
Bd5, c2
Bc4, c1=N
Bb5, Nc7
Ba4, Nc2
Bxc2 Ne2
Bd1, doesn't matter
Bxe2++

White to move. How does white win?

What is white's best move?

Well, I've got a lot battered up against the black king, mate on b8 on two different moves. However, my king is also exposed, and the obvious move, Ka6, doesn't actually do much to solve the perpetual check, as black can play Qe2 amd then bat me around the a and b files.

Going backwards doesn't seem to do any better, and the pawn moves are illegal. That narrows it down to one of two queen moves.

Qd5 fails, because after Qxd5, black's queen is still on a white square, and can still do the perpetual check, so that leaves us with only one move

Qg5. Qxg5+
Ka6.

Now we're threatening mate on b7, and black's out of checks.

There are probably multiple lines of possible defense, but the again, most obvious one of

....Bxa7

falls to c7, as black still has no checks, and can't stop both b7++ and c8=Q++

Qg5 is correct.

Oh now this is a cutie. I can't take credit for this one, I've seen it before, unfortunately.

The trick is that white really wants to queen one of his pawns and keep it. You trade off one of the rooks at that point, and K+Q is a win (albeit not an easy one) over K+R. Sacrifice the bishop if necessary, but bring one of those pawns home.

Of course, black has rooks behind both of them, and you can't cover both the pawns themselves and the queening squares. So the rooks need to be distracted somehow.

Bf2. Seems like a worthless move, Rhxf2 is obviously bad, as you just queen on h8, but surely Rfxf2 preserves your position.

But then white plays

Rg2, and black is in a quandary. You can't take the rook without allowing one of the pawns to queen from whichever rook you take off the file. And you can't take either pawn without yielding your other rook and giving white a rook behind said pawn.

And it's worse than it looks, because while 2 rooks are probably a little better than the single queen, you won't keep both rooks for long. If you don't take the remaining pawn on f or h7, that'll queen too. And if you do take it right away, he'll pick up one of your rooks with Qf5 or h5, either with check.

But like I said, I can't take credit, I've seen this one before and remembered the solution, didn't solve it.

Is this, dare I say it, the memest position ever?

Nah, this is.

White to play and win.

I don't get it. Only the pawn on D3 can move for white.