Position replay

The first position every player must learn to win. White to play and build a bridge for the king.

Two bishops and a king against a bare king. White to play and force the king into a corner.

Four hundred years old and still the first sacrifice most players learn. White to move and give the knight for the king.

The oldest recorded miniature still taught today. White to move, a bishop down, with a check that decides it.

The whole of king and pawn endings in one position. Whoever must move first gives ground.

The oldest trap in chess, and the first one every beginner must learn to answer. Black to move and stop the mate.

The oldest trap still worth knowing. White to move and ignore the pinned knight.

A pawn down and completely safe. Black to play and hold the draw by keeping the rook on the sixth rank.

A whole queen against one pawn, and White cannot win. Every attempt to bring the king up is stalemate.

A bishop and a pawn against a bare king, and it is still a draw. The bishop does not control the promotion square.

Anderssen has given up both rooks and a bishop. White to play the move that made this the Immortal Game.

The Immortal Game, earlier. White to move and offer the bishop that has been attacked for two moves.

Black threatens mate on g2 and White's queen is attacked. Anderssen found a quiet rook move instead.

Black to move. Morphy gives the queen for a bishop and mates with the minor pieces.

Black to move against a king that has lost the right to castle. Morphy never let it settle.

Black has just kicked the bishop with b5. Morphy answered by giving up a knight to open the file.

The white king has walked to b3 on move eight. Black to move, and gives a knight to keep it there.

Blackburne is said to have won a shilling a time with this. White to move — the natural capture is mated in three.

White to move, having just opened both diagonals. What follows was called the finest game of the nineteenth century.

Promoting to a queen only draws. White to play and win by asking for something smaller.

Every white piece is hanging. Steinitz played a check and left them all where they stood.

The knight on d7 looks undefended and is not. White to move, and the obvious capture loses a piece.

White to move. The natural recapture allows a black pawn to promote to a knight on move seven, with check.

White to move and recapture the pawn. Three black pawns then close around the bishop and it never gets out.

Pawns level on both wings, and the game is decided by which king is drawn furthest from the others.

Both rooks are on the pawn's file. The one behind it grows stronger as the pawn advances; the one in front does not.

Neither side can move without losing the pawn and the game. The purest zugzwang on the board.

Black to move. The combination that starts here is one of the most copied finishes in chess.

Nine moves. White to play, and the queen goes to the square the black king is standing next to.

White to move. The black king is dragged from g8 to the far corner of the board and mated there.

Black to move. The queen goes to a square where three different white pieces can capture it.

Marshall had saved this idea for eight years. Capablanca had to solve it at the board.

White to move. The queen is offered on square after square, and it can never be taken.

The white king cannot catch the pawn and cannot support its own. It draws anyway.

Black to move and play a pawn move that does nothing. White has no move left that does not lose material.

White to move. The bishop walks into the corner of the board and the game ends immediately.

The rook pawn is one square from queening. Black to play and draw by attacking it from the side.

Alekhine called this his finest game. Black has just put a rook where two pieces attack it.