Chess Chatter Challenges #10 (Special Edition!)
An assortment of STRATEGIC positions to think about
Hey everyone! Welcome to the tenth iteration of Chess Chatter Challenges. If you want to see the ninth set of challenge positions then you can find them here:
And here is a video explaining the answers to the six positions from the last challenge post:
So for this special 10th set of challenge positions I am giving you guys a sneak peek into a Chessable course I just finished creating after 6+ long months of work.
The course will most likely be titled “Seal the Deal: Converting Middlegame Advantages into Wins” (or something very similar to that) and is all about gaining and converting strategic advantages into wins (if you couldn’t tell by the title). The strategic, long-term advantages I focus on in the course include king safety, material, the bishop pair, space and pawn weaknesses. I discuss other positional ideas like prophylaxis, restriction, when to exchange pieces or avoid trades and much more. I’m hoping the course will come out by the end of the summer but I don’t have a definitive date yet.
I have already teased one game that will be featured in the course in a previous Substack article:
Each of the six positions below will be in the course and these specific positions focus on gaining a long-term advantage in some way. It could be that you weaken the opponent’s king safety, win material, gain the bishop pair, get a space advantage or create a pawn weakness for the opponent. The number of the puzzle and which side is to move is in the caption below each position.
Since the large majority of the previous Chess Chatter Challenge positions focus on tactics and calculation, be sure to let me know in the comments if you like these positional exercises as a breath of fresh air!
Feel free to reply to this post in your email inbox, email me at chesschatter@substack.com or post in the comments what your answers are. I will be posting the answers to these puzzles in next week’s blog post.
Finally, if you’re interested in personalized online chess coaching then you should check out my website here: https://nextlevelchesscoaching.com/why-next-level-chess-coaching/
Happy solving!
Personally, I like these positional puzzles. They challenge me to evaluate resulting positions, compare and choose what seems to best. And, evaluation is something I need to work on.