Chess Puzzles
Here you find some interesting game positions in FEN format.
If you have SparkChess for PC, Mac, iPad, Android or Blackberry Playbook you can copy each string string and then paste it in the Board Editor, then click Apply to play from that position, or, you just have the online version, click the "Play now" link after each puzzle.
You can find more interesting puzzles on our new chess site, CHESS4ME.
En-Passant - how it works
En-Passant works like this: it's intended to prevent pawns from avoiding being captured when they move two squares. So, if you move the white pawn to d4, it will be captured by en-passant. If you move it to d3, it's a normal capture.
For beginners - mate in three
Here's a pretty simple chess puzzle to get you warmed up. White to play and mate in three.
Think this is too easy?
This situation seems ridiculously easy. The black king is in such a dire situation that deafeat is inevitable - but - can White mate in just three moves?
Promote to Knight
By studying databases with millions of played games, one could see that 97% of promotions have been made to Queen. It makes sense, since it's the most powerful piece. Still, are there cases where an 'underpromotion', that is promoting to Rook, Knight or Bishop would be more useful?
World Champion Emanuel Lasker presented a position in which White is in serious trouble, that not even a promotion to Queen would solve.
Mate in Three
Another interesting puzzle composed by Niels Hoeg in 1905 and featuring promotions: White can mate (win) in three moves. Can you find the right solution?
Mate in Two
White can win in just two moves. Can you find the right ones?
Kasparov mates in 3
This position is from Kasparov vs Elmar Magerramov, USSR, 1982. Kasparov checkmated Elmar in 3 moves. Can you do that?