Chess Online

This puzzle was way too easy.

A four move mate that involves chasing the king to the center of the board was not easy for me. Seeing that you can win the queen that way is not difficult. But to see the mate was not so obvious. I kept looking for ways to keep the king from running with things like Ng4 which threatens Rh1++. But white has a spite check with the rook and a sac of the queen for the bishop that thwarts those attempts

I have always been a little weak with tactics. Most of my games are stodgy positional struggles where I try to force a weakness in the pawn structure or some other minor disadvantage on my opponent. I have beaten a master once, experts many times, and gave a GM a good game as well (1999 US Open), although I did eventually lose. He was Russian and did not speak English Joel Benjamin watched my game and complimented me on how well I played. It was one lost tempo that led to a tactical shot several moves later that did me in.

These puzzles, hopefully, will contribute to my tactical improvement. The puzzles that are just "white to move and win" are better training than mate in X moves. The other thing that I sometimes do to try to improve my tactics is to play tactical openings like Kings Gambit and Smith-Morra that forces me to think more tactical.