📗 Be a Top 5% Chess Player Worldwide
Learn the 3 Steps to 2000 ELO –
Learn 3 Ways To Improve Your Chess Results
FREE Masterclass ►
💰💲 Join the RCA Affiliate Program, promote our courses, and get 50% commission –
♛ Find this chess puzzle from this blog-post –
🔹 A Puzzle That Tells YOUR Chess Level –
In this video lesson, GM Igor Smirnov challenges you with a special chess puzzle that will help you find out your chess rating level.
Your task is to find the best move for Black and calculate all the supporting variations. Feel free to pause the video, take your time to calculate necessary variations, and then continue watching the video.
Finally, let us know in the comments your solution to this puzzle and your actual chess rating level.
▬▬▬▬▬▬
► 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
📗 Free chess courses –
#GMSmirnov #ChessPuzzles #ChessTraining #ChessPuzzle #ChessPuzzlesBest #ChessImprovement
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.
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.
I have a different solution
I wanted to push my h pawn
So that i create some weaknesses
I am actually 2000 rated but your puzzle told me that I am 2200……..
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.
Can u post the PGN please?
Yes, great video and I would like to see more like this. Thx.
i dont have prblem with calculating but if I play 10 min rapid there is no time to calculate 😄
Nakamura joke – the best!
1.200 😅 an accourate puzzle
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).
Does bishop d6 work as an initial move with sacking ideas on h2 after e4 followed by ng5?
It’s ideal…Ba3/a3 Bg2/Bxg2 Rg2/Kxg2 Qc6/Kf7 NG4/Kf8 Nh2/Kf7 #Qf3
After Qc6 other variations from white Kg3 Rg8/Kh3 Qg2/Kh4/#Qg4
White is not forced to take rook on G2 . White should move pawn on H 2 instead and move the king when rook moves to deliver a check with the bishop. My first move as black I would move queen to c3 and sac the queen on h2 after
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.
FIRST THING I CONSIDERED IS Qc6
This seems a little inaccurate. I’m like 600 and I know most of the moves
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.
Imagine not find anythink from 800, but 2200
I’m only 1100 and saw the 2200 rating one in seconds
I found it, but i'm not rated 2200. At computer i can hardly win a 1500 bot.
Calculated: 1,900
Real Rating: 650
Tbh I'm 1064, but I saw solution of 2200 level…. how is it possible?
Very educational. Yes please analyze more puzzles like this. Thank you.
i got up to pawn f3 this time, but i got 1800 on another one,
this is a great idea for youtube content.
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
Hardly a puzzle – more like a mate in 20 ( which it is) !!
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.
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 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.
I took with the pawn with the bishop and spent 10 minutes of my life trying to see what elo I was…
I woulve played h5
me being 1800 according to this puzzle while has 600 elo lmao hahahahaha
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?
Elo rating of 2500 👍👍👏
my rating is 2200
1200 elo for a 12 year old aka me!!!
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
Its black to play and win, but white is also playing to win
This position makes me wonder what the players were thinking.
Ugh 1200. Back to the drawing board.
apparently I am 2700 , but I think that puzzles and rating are two completely different thing, you could master the puzzles for 2800's but you will still be a 1500.
Can you make these types of videos frequently 🥺🥺
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.
You didn't give a rating the way I solve the puzzle
Trying to bring my game to another level 😊
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.
I am surprised I saw the knight, I am only 1600 .