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Can you do one of these regularly please . These are very educational and really show where your thinking - calculation is lacking. I am sure everybody agrees that you should make this a series or common feature of the channel. Sure you have many more
► Chapters 00:00 Find Your Chess Rating Level With This Puzzle 00:24 Your Rating Level is 800 IF... 00:53 Your Rating Level is 1200 IF... 01:38 Your Rating Level is 1600 IF... 03:14 Your Level is Hikaru Nakamura IF... 03:37 Your Rating Level is 1800 IF... 05:33 Your Rating Level is 1900 IF... 06:41 Your Rating Level is 2200 IF... 07:17 Your Rating Level is 2500 IF... 08:53 Your Rating Level is 2700 IF... 10:18 Comment your solution & rating below
I really love these know your elo puzzles. They give me false hope that I am higher rated than I actually am ! 😂😂 Btw jokes apart, I really love this content
I'm a 1530 rapid and I saw Bb4. It has a similar idea as Ba3, but it's more forcing. I saw Nd2(But I simply have Bxd2 because I don't want his knight to come defend the king and also to give up the bishop for the most I can and then I saw Rg2 and stuff) and axb4 Rg2 Bxg2 Rg8(Bxb7+ Qxb7#) Ng3 (Nh5 I thought was winning on the spot but missed that the queen is attacking too so they don't have to take with the knight) and calculated a lot in Rxg3 but stopped when I found no way. Edit: I just saw Qc6 after Bxg2 and it's completely winning
I saw upto what 1600 level saw, but actually got a bit deeper into that calculating various king responses. Never saw Qc3 before the light sqaure bishop exchange.Iam 1600-1625 rated, and that pretty much tells where I belong to.
This pegged me perfectly. Only been playing seriously for a few months and I am around 1000. I saw almost exactly what you said i would at that level. Rook takes, bishop takes, etc. expose king, check with the queen. I stopped there. I have such a hard time visualizing beyond that many moves and my brain stops, makes the move and then hopes for the best. Keep up the test puzzles like this. Great stuff!
Thanks Igor. I did pursue a number of the options you mentioned and some others which would've failed in light of your explanations. I would rate myself on this puzzle somewhere between 1200 & 1600. I very much enjoyed the attempts and your way of analysing the problem. Yes, I think these videos are very helpful in training me to think more broadly.
I m around 2100 but I have seen the variations until fxg2. But I have missed Ng3 as defensive resource in the earlier variation. So I m 2500 and 1600 at the same time. It feels like a GM playing like a patzer.
Qc6 after Bxg2 (that long range bishop checkmate) is a beautiful line, missed that one (within a minute) unfortunately. But in your Kh3 line (2:26), Qf3+ is not the only option. I also looked at stuff like Ne4 (to then jump to Ng5 if Ng3 if played). The king can't just go back to g2 yet (then a move like Nc3 wins the white queen), nor g3, which is blocked by the knight. If white plays Ng3, blacks responds with Ng5, drawing the white king even further out, without an easy and immediate way back. If white plays slow, black gets some time to activate more pieces (the other rook, the other knight) against the king. I did not evaluate to the end here, but I think that this line maybe deserves a bit more attention.
I enjoyed the puzzle and your explanation. I don't think I could identify and analyse all the lines that you did but came to think that this was the solution 1. ..... Qc6 2. Nc4 dxc4 3. Qc3 Qxc3 4. bxc3 Bxc3 5. Bb2 Bxb2
I'm 1450, and got 2500. I found the queen sac pretty fast, but the knight f4 line took me a little while. I wouldn't pride myself a lot as I've watched your other chess rating puzzles and knew EXACTLY how I needed to approach it to get a high elo level P.S :- Please make more of these!
Thanks for the video! I really enjoy these videos that include a puzzle and/or a way to gauge how we are progressing in our chess, and hope you will include them every so often in your lessons! Thanks again!
There will be a lot of chaos (trades) on g2. White will have 3 moves after Qc6 check. He will have Kf1, Kh3 and Kg3... Kf1 and Kh3 will lose to Qf3 check... Kf3 is the only line that give some hope to White when Black must coordinate the Queen and the Knights in order to check mate his king .. The White king is effectively in a cage... One can play Nf4 check on g3. The King cannot go to f3 because of the discovered check by moving the Knight to d2. The king will have to move up to the Black camp. Moves Qh6 can be important in some of these variations... The White king is trapped on g and h files...
I could clearly determine my rating is between 1255 and 1911 with a side of stockfish, and this correlates to my bullet and rapid ratings and explains my correspondence performance too.
My rating is 1050, I took a break from chess after reaching that (about 2 months), and I got the 1800 rating as you said. Got stuck at the NG3 move. Now I'm motivated to get back into it! 😁
I got to the very edge of the queen sac for the bishop checkmate. 2200 thinking piercing the 1450 fog of my current 'developmental' stage... Good video, thanks
I first saw Bxg2 Bxg2 Rxg2 Kxg2 Qc6+ and it wasn't clear that I would get enough advantage. I might play that in blitz though. I saw Qc6 (a mate threat) and that Ng3 prevents the idea. I only glanced at Bxa3 and didn't calculate it at all. Oddly, I never considered starting with Rxg2 in any of my lines simply because a move that produces check is more forcing. This is probably because I knew it's a puzzle.
I enjoyed your video very much. I didn’t know if I even qualified for any rating unless I was competing. That aside, I do like chess puzzles and wondered if that would at least give me some idea where I might stand. Based on this video, I am surprised to learn I could be as high as 1500 but probably closer to 1300. Fun to know this, thanks!
No rating here, I'm a casual. My response was Qc6. What I did not see was Ng3 to block the rook. I figured maybe white would try to go on offense after Qc6, not seeing the setup or even welcoming a queen sac.
I made the mistake of ruling out Na5 permanently instead of just for one move. So I analysed 1...Qc6 2. Ng3 h5 3. c3 h4 4. cxd4 hxg3 5. Rc1 Nc5 6. Rxe5
I saw Queen C6, but i did not see Knight to A5, but did see Knight to G3 so i suppose i am somewhat below 1800. My club rating is ~1300. I did take around 6 minutes to calculate though, and came across all the lower rated solutions as well
I LOVE THESE - my favourite. My move was h7-h5 which I felt was overwhelmingly winning but failed to see the forcing line... i felt white is in zugzwang and if BB2 then N N5 and B goes back (then puch panw) or gives me the K6 square winning by extra force on N7. i feel blackis discordinated an yes my attack will win and see various good lines where blacs position remain hopeless... if white does not push h3 then my pawn wins with extra force on N7 an dif pushes weakness king further with I would target the n6 freed square and bring B and 2nd rook into the attack - my playing style is more positional and so my rating is 1600 not 2200, Mike what rating is p up 2 squres was just mentioned 2800 harikarra but was joking but that was the I saw the position
I'm not going to spend a lot of time. I am eyeing qc6, then sacking my rook on g2. If bishop takes its mate. If not, then push the rook to g1 and force king to recapture. Then qh1 mate. Obviously there could be some counter play, but I looked for less then a min!
I was thinking e4 to open up the dark diagonal for the queen. I got the lowest rating. I noticed the rook and bishop’s attack on that pawn near the king, but I assumed that it wouldn’t work out.
lol. I saw the sacrifice but I didn't think it led anywhere concrete (evidently didn't calculate far enough). I then evaluated that I had an extra pawn, and that White didn't seem to have any immedate threats, so I just decided to play h5 with the intention of breaking through with a pawn storm. (I'm not claiming that I saw the "Magnus variation" or anything close - merely that it seemed to me that I was already winning, and that I didn't need to wager a rook on breaking through).
I’m around 1200 elo online, I did consider Qc6 by instinct knowing Na5 couldn’t stop it, but I knew that there were knight sac thoughts in the way. Getting the white king out and about usually isn’t the right way to checkmate with only a queen as the king’s pieces can help defend or block (like opening up space for the white queen to move). Honestly I missed Ng3 but found the Nf4 blocking tech. I guess my instincts are good but not refined so I’ll put myself at 1600 because I would likely see the boogeyman and end up missing Ng3 in a real match.
Cool. I’m somewhere between 800 and 2200! LOL. This was an interesting one. The other puzzle videos I’ve seen him do were more straightforward. In this one I got some of the advanced concepts but missed a couple of the simpler comments. I got all the way to the queen/bishop attack but didn’t see the pawn solution as the final step.
This one I stopped at 2500 level 😅, after f3 and I saw rook e2 to defend the bishop g2 and I stopped, I didn't See stockfish defensive moves BIshop take d4 or even the h3 move. By the way still I am a FM with elo rating at 2300 / 2250 +
My best calculated variation commenced with Bxa3 to link my rooks, then aligning my queen and bishop on the diagonal, however I saw white's knight could play interference. However, I did not satisfactorily solve the dilemma. My Daily rating is 1642, and puzzles 1807.
My move wasn't Ba3 but Bb4 so it threats to win the exchange and it's more forcing, funny thing is that I saw Ng3 to avoid the sacs, but didn't see it when Kxg2
1300. I saw the potential setups with Rxg2 or Bxg2 or Qc6, I didnt really like Rxg2 because white doesnt have to take the rook straight away, so I was looking at lines like Rxg2, h3 etc. Curious to know if anyone else looked at this and knows why its bad for white given Bxg2 was best.
I stopped analysed after ...f3 as that line is clearly best. Saw Rxg2 and Qc6 Nf4 and f3 etc. in a few seconds, though surprising given years of tactics practice.
Bb4 threatening rook on e1 as a distraction to open up my rooks on back rank. he has to deal with bishop otherwise he loess the rook on e1. he can take bishop with pawn or block with pawn onc2 to c3, or ignore the threat, either way rooks are now connected. that was my first initial thought.
I found 1. ...Rxg2 and 2 ...Qc6 rather quickly, which, according to your scale, would give me 2200, however in practice I can't get above 1200-1300 in a chess training app :)
~1800, though IRL I'm ~1600. I was quite happy with the Qc6 idea. Went through all those low level ideas as candidates but refuted them the way you described. Didn't see how whit could survive the Qc6 idea and not be worse and thought that was sufficient lol
Not so good rating in general (around 1400-1600ish? I don't recall) and the last time I played was ages ago, but I somehow shot _way_ above my regular skill level on this one. Fairly quickly realized that just sac'ing everything on g2 is not likely to work out, and tried to search for something more forcing, after which I found the Qc6 move. Gave it some thought, didn't see any good response and started watching... and a few minutes later, before you even got there, I suddenly realized white has the Nf4/Qe2 combo. I did _not_ see f3 in advance, at all. It did look obvious when the position was on the board, but I didn't consider how impactful f3 and f2 would actually be.
Well, an interesting puzzle, but not clear-cut. I don't see that the final position at 10:27 is an obvious win for Black. He just has B+N for a R. The attack has almost ground to a halt and White could play Qc3 next forcing the Queen exchange and stopping it altogether. Black's King is also quite exposed and White's minor pieces are well placed. After the promising looking Ne4 White can simply play Qg2 maintaining the guard on c2. Other moves like Nc5 and Bd6 seem to be met by Qc3. Yes, Black stands better, but it looks as if it could be a long grind. Come on, Igor, show me a clear winning line!
Damn, Igor, i moved from 1600 on your last puzzle to 1800 on this one. Even saw the 1900 idea of connecting the rooks. Your puzzles do me well, since my lichess rating ist about 1000. To be fair, last time i actually played a stranger and not my amateur friends is more than a year ago. My tactics rating base on lichess is 2000 though, because thats what i mainly do. A few puzzles here and there.
6:40 i saw something similar what if you played bishop b4 aiming at the trapped rook so the opponent had to take with a pawn then rook eats pawn on g2 then after bishop takes rook you bring out the other rook and with cant take the your bishop on b7 cuz you recapture with your queen and thats mate so white has to play knight g3 covering the g file then you start luanching the h pawn forward to h5 then h4 and i cant see how white stops that checkmate because after knight goes to e4 and you recapture with your knight white can recapture with either the rook or the bishop if he takes with the rook you just go knight f6 and win an exchange and a better position overall and if he takes with a bishop basically the same thing you take the bishop with the knight and then he recaptures with his rook and you pin the rook to the king on b7 (if the white knight goes to a5 you just move to d5) and after the white queen add pressure on the pinned rook you move your knight to f6 and win an exchange again maybe even mate in the near future. please if someone read it, let me know if i missed anything
also. the reason why bishop b4 and not a3 is because after bishop a3 knight can go a5 and after queen takes knight rook takes rook with a tempo on the queen and after you go queen c7 the rook can join the action on the 3 rank
I am much better in a puzzle setting when I know there is a "right" answer. I regularly get the 1800-2200 answer on these videos, but my rating is like 1300 lol. In-game not so much. Should I start playing slower time formats so I can sit and look at the position I guess?
I’m 1100 and I saw the queen sac and then nf4, but I didn’t realize my pawn would be on f4 after the capture so I just gave up on it after I realized the rook and queen could move
Finding the queen sac to checkmate was awesome but I knew white wouldnt just let you checkmate him. And you can't. When i used stockfish white avoids mate but is down material with best play.
It's a Lil bothersome for me , as I ended up with a completely different result, however it was not very efficient, and I definetly did not see that "bishop alone" checkmate at all , so I'll just go with my rating that I received before which was 1200.
Im 1200 and I did see rook takes g2, bishop takes then queen c6. I saw that the opponent can defend g2 with the knight, and when pawn takes, the queen defends. But then I didnt see anything. This puzzle gives me 2500 but I am actually not even close, I blunder my queen a lot.
I think like 1600 but I am pretty good in sacrificing and Forking and draw-ed a losing game with 2000 chess bot and also won with my friend who is 1700 multiple times and also did a brilliant move- rook sacrifice for luring queen and Forking it with knight and a great move- bishop sac for luring king + rook fork with queen in 2 consecutive days idk my rating honestly can anyone guess I'll take the average one in replies
I’m 2000 and decided and saw all the obvious attempts and didn’t bother to calculate because I’m lazy and nothing looked forcing enough. Certainly didn’t see rxg2 bxg2 qc6. I probably would have pulled a nakamura 😉 maybe I’m too blitz minded
Im not sure if this is accurate because my max rating in blitz is just 1700 but I was able to see the solution within 5 mins. Does this mean I have a potential to improve more like a GM? Haha
I was able to solve the whole sequence, but, it is complex enough and took me a long enough time that the reality is I would have not been able to work it out in a real game and not made the rook sacrifice. It was only because I knew black had a winning line that I continued to work through the line. I did immediately look at the winning line, so my guess is the rating given for me is correct. I have a uscf rating of 1750, no idea how that translates to an online rating.
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