Jayden's Chess Journal Edition #20

Welcome to the 20th Edition of Jayden’s Chess Journal, our hiatus is over so get ready for more weekly chess content! Let’s jump right into it.

Joke of the Week

Why do chess players make bad lovers?

They spend too much time thinking three moves ahead!

💡Puzzle #20

White has a very tricky checkmate, but how?

✅Solution

In order to find checkmate White must sacrifice the QUEEN, Qxd8 forces the Black king to recapture and White gets to play the amazing Rc8+ and then after Kd7, Rc7# finishes the game.

♟️Tip of the Week

Checkmate is always worth more than a Queen, so it is necessary sometimes to sacrifice your Queen for checkmate.

🪶Chess History

Vladimir Kramnik, born in 1975 in Russia, is a former World Chess Champion known for his strategic brilliance and defensive mastery. He famously dethroned Garry Kasparov in 2000 without losing a single game. In 2006, he unified the chess world title by defeating Veselin Topalov in a controversial match. Though he lost the championship to Viswanathan Anand in 2007, he remained an elite player for over a decade, winning major tournaments and shaping modern chess with deep preparation and positional play. Kramnik retired in 2019, leaving behind a legacy of innovation and chess brilliance

In this position Kramnik played the stunning Rxf6, this move appears to be sacrificing the rook, but if Black takes the Rook with the Queen, White will take Black’s rook on h5, giving White an extra bishop.

 That wraps up this edition of Jayden’s Chess Journal

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and if you know anyone looking for more chess knowledge, send them this link so they can access this awesome newsletter.

Thank you so much for reading this edition, until next time!