Stuff I've picked up from the Puzzles

So yeah, I've been doing thousands and thousands of these things (mostly mates in 3/4)...and I think that they have sharpened me up quite a bit (alerting me to some stuff that I might well have been missing all these years)...

Anyway, I figured I'd pass along some of the more common ones. And yes, there are no convenient wall-to-wall diagrams here parading their way down the page; you're actually gonna have to punch onto links to see this stuff. (Here's hoping that makes em stick in your head all the more!)

[And one further note before we proceed: these are skeletal positions intended solely to illustrate a single idea (which is why I've included the intended solutions [in brackets] right underneath each). So please: don't try "solving" them.] ;)

1. Here's one I most likely would've missed before. Now I figure I've done it so much here that if I ever do miss it in a real game, I definitely deserve to lose: :D

https://lichess.org/editor/R7/5ppk/7p/5P2/8/2B5/3Q4/8_w_-_-_0_1

[1 Rh8+ Kxh8 2 Qxh6+]

1b. (Oh yeah, and if you replace the pawn on f5 with your king, it then becomes a nifty mate in 2.) :)

[1 Qxh6+]

2. Here's another that definitely becomes a matter of technique for us Puzzlers (illustrating the paralyzing effect a double check can have):

https://lichess.org/editor/5rk1/5ppp/8/8/8/8/1B6/3R2R1_w_-_-_0_1

[1 Rxg7+ Kh8 2 Rg8+ Kxg8 3 Rg1#]

3. The queen capture on the second move that was a bit of an eye opener for me (the point being that I would instinctively tend to recapture with the rook there). But having the queen out in front--and both majors on the same file--adds a good deal of clout:

https://lichess.org/editor/5rk1/4rp2/6pQ/8/8/8/6R1/6R1_w_-_-_0_1

[1 Rxg6+ fg 2 Qxg6+ Kh8 3 Qh6+ Rh7 4 Qxf8#]

4. And yes, this next one is skeletal to a fault. :) But you do see the illustrated idea come up time and again:

https://lichess.org/editor/6k1/5ppp/5n2/4N2Q/8/3B4/8/8_w_-_-_0_1

[1 Bxh7+ Nxh7 2 Qxf7+ Kh8 3 Ng6#]

5. And here's a great one (very easy to overlook in an actual game too!):

https://lichess.org/editor/1KR5/1PP5/P7/3n4/8/4q3/8/1rr5_b_-_-_0_1

[1... Rxg2+ 2 Kxg2 Rxf2+ 3 Rxf2 Qg3+]

6. And what I like to call The Establishing Move (somehow or other seeming akin in my mind to the establishing shot in movies). Although the thing I would automatically look at first would be 2 Rh8+, the check with the queen on f6 "flattens" Black's king up against the back of the board (it proves to be a very useful idea in king-hunt situations):

https://lichess.org/editor/6k1/3b4/8/8/8/8/2Q2PP1/7R_w_-_-_0_1

[1 Qg6+ Kf8 2 Qf6+]

7. Then there's another stutter-step motif I call The Feint--a check intended solely for the purpose of getting the checking piece to a better (okay, lethal) square:

https://lichess.org/editor/3Q3K/7P/8/3PP3/2q5/8/2p5/6rr_w_-_-_0_1

[1... Rxa2+ 2 Kxa2 Qe6+]

All of which only serves to remind me of Jerry Rice.

I remember he had just caught the ball once as two tacklers were converging upon him. And somehow--by some marvelously attuned instinct--he managed to elude them both by putting the flicker of a half-hitch in his stride.

Either man would've nabbed him easily, if alone. But that slight stutter-step induced them to converge and very nearly collide. And so Rice sped by for an easy TD.

Admittedly, I don't really know what that has to do with chess. But I like the story. :)