Jayden's Chess Journal Edition #3

Joke of the week

“Relationships are like a game of chess. One wrong move and you get punished!”

💡Puzzle #3

White has checkmate in one, where is it?

✅Solution:

The solution to this puzzle is the awesome Qh8 checkmate! We can perform this move because our knight covers the f7 square and the queen on h8 covers the f6 and h7 squares, constricting the king and we have checkmate.

♟️Tip of the Week

Try to constrict as many spaces around your opponent’s king as possible. By doing so, you can create much easier positions for checkmate, and force your opponent to make defensive moves hurting their initiative.

🪶Chess History

Carrying on last week’s topic of Spanish chess history, today we’re going to look at a position from Ruy López de Segura from 1560.

Black just responded to López’s move of Qc8 check with Qd8. López then proceeded to capture the queen on d8 and Black recaptured.

With the king now on d8, López played the wonderful Nf7+!

Now White forks the King and will win the Rook! Black resigned after this move. This position demonstrates the skill of chess masters 400 years ago, and how they influenced modern chess with their play.

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!