Problem World

This series of articles aims to introduce the field of chess problems to solvers and players, covering its many aspects, and assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. All special terms are explained and for easy reference, the most important ones are linked to their definitions on the Glossary page. Each article contains six high-quality problems that illustrate the topic under discussion, all with their solutions fully analysed.

Chess players familiar with tactics puzzles but not composed problems may also start with these Walkabout blogs, which clarify their differences: Chess problems vs puzzles and more on ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ scene and Understanding soundness and motivations in chess puzzles, problems, and studies.

Note that the articles below, and indeed this whole site, follow a chess problem convention in using ‘S’ to represent the knight (from the German word, Springer). ‘N’ is reserved for a fairy piece called the nightrider. Another convention in problems is that all diagrams are shown from White's perspective. For that reason, board coordinates are superfluous and not displayed.