From the starting positions, what are the fastest possible helpmates ending with a pawn under-promotion to a Knight and to a Bishop, respectively?

The Queen and Rook under-promotion checkmates are relatively easy. Both are possible in 5 moves each. The minor piece versions seem much trickier. I don't think I have found optimum solutions yet. Keen to see how others do...

In this position:

[FEN "r6k/8/p1Npn1pr/3Pp1b1/2B1q3/PRR5/KP1Q3P/8 w - - 13 38"]

38. Qc2 

Black initially replied with 38 ... Qxc2, but I was playing around with the game, looking at what seemed to be the closest point to the two of them being equal. I tried the alternate move of 38. Nc5

... and voilà, the game stabilized with just a TON of good options at nearly every step for both players. It honestly feels a bit like the initial opening, where I could imagine just as much theory based on that starting point as from the opening itself.

Sequences that interested me for their completely different characters:

• 38. Qc2 Nc5 39. Bd3 Qf4 -- White attacks the queen while opening up a discovered attack on the knight, so black dodges the queen to the side (as opposed to taking the pawn on d5, which is also a viable path forward).
• 38. Qc2 Nc5 39. Rb6 Qf5 -- White moves the rook out of danger and black's queen moves to where the pawn can take if white initiates the queen exchange. This frees up the knight to go on the attack. Another wide-open position reached where I could see there being arguments for days over what to do next (screenshot of the options: https://i.imgur.com/h1iufug.png)
• 38. Qc2 Nc5 39. Rb4 a5 40. Rb6 -- It just keeps giving! (screenshot of options from here https://i.imgur.com/puK5YDn.png)
• 38. Qc2 Nc5 39. Rb8+ Rxb8 40. Nxb8 -- White can give a check and force the exchange of rooks, which gives a small advantage to black, but evaluating down to depth 30, it's pretty solid at -0.1.

Are positions like this, where the game sort of stabilizes into so many arguably "best" options, rare?

Here's a screenshot of the evaluation at depth 37, from 38. ... Nc5 https://i.imgur.com/ckBnBWV.png where you can see that those first four options settle out at 0.0 and even the fifth option is only -0.1.

And here is the original game from the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Finals (2020): on lichess.org and on chessgames.com (couldn't find it on chess.com)

I saw this picture on Reddit and really liked the board and the pieces. Which app is this? Where can I play with the same board and piece set

A 2885 rated lichess puzzle that features a beautiful M5 for black. I spent a good 3 minutes looking at the wrong things before I realised what the answer was.

Just curious if this was a thing, thank you.

the Chennai Masters tournament was great, even though it felt so short. At the beginning of the tournament, I wasn’t giving Andreikin a lot of chances, but he was so steady throughout. Forgot that he was a Candidate after all. All the best to Gukesh. Hope he finds what he needs to get on track. I wonder if he even wants to be World Champion anymore? He would probably be more than willing to pass the title. Next big thing to watch is the USA vs Uzbekistan match. Who do yall think will win? Next time, I want it to be France vs USA. I think Alireza and Maxime could take down Hikaru and Fabi.

Hi again! Today we have an endgame with equal material, but sometimes even apparently simple positions contain unexpected twists. Good luck!

Solution to yesterday's position:

As compensation for the isolated pawn White has placed his pieces aggressively against the black king. However, we must never lose sight of our opponent's intentions. In this case, Black is threatening to play 30...Qc1+, forcing the exchange of queens and reducing severely White's attacking chances.

For this reason Alekhine played 30.Kh2!, and after 30...Qc1 (which is actually a losing blunder; Black is alright after 30...Qd6) he was able to play 31.Qb4! (but notice that 31.Qa5 would be a mistake since 31...Qc7 attacks the rook and therefore forces the queen trade). Black played 31...Qc7 anyway, but here Alekhine found the strong 32.d5!, with the idea to play Qd4, incorporating the queen to the attack and winning in a few moves.

Link to the game

Are there any websites where you can search for chess games by whites, opening and blacks defense? Such as London vs King’s Indian defense.

I’m thinking about GM games where a knight becomes an absolute terror. I just played a game where I had to jockey my queenside knight around a bit before forking the king and queen, which, after taking the queen, would’ve forked the rooks if my opponent didn’t resign. Obviously not the best example as my opponent and I are decidedly not GMs, but whatever.

What’s a game where a gm totally controlled it with a knight? (Also if agadmator has done a breakdown of it, even better)

Yagiz and Oro are obvious at this point. The two prodigies.

Roman Shogdshiev is also being hyped since he is now the youngest IM. He is only 11 yrs old, but already got a GM norm and 2400+ Elo.

But what about the rest?

For me, Seenamoveahead will be a very strong 2700+ Elo player.

Finek too, but slightly weaker than Seenamoveahead.

Begmuratov has some potential. But in general, after the top 4. Seems like the Kids are more or less equal in strength.

How about you? What is your opinionM

Source: https://www.chess.com/events/dole-open-2026/05/Nepomniachtchi_Ian-Kvaloy_Aksel_Bu

Feel free to explain why and share your elo.

edit: to be clear, there is a king and some other pieces as well on the board.

3+0

I think he'll be. What do you think?

Rxb7 is obviously winning, but can white deliver a forced mate?

Here's the game.
And a picture of a bit of my hurried thought process.

I'm particularly interested as to what are some reasons why the eval bar swung in black's favor around the middle of the game and how can I find improving moves in the end game like I had with the Bishop? Bishop vs Bishop end games are very rare for me and as far as puzzles go, I usually do Pawn endgames or Rook vs Rook end games. Any advice or things to look out for when in those positions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Event Link

One of those rare positions where even the engine can't find the win – even though one exists! White to move.

I'm 500 elo and started about a month ago, and I feel stuck at 500 since every time I feel like I'm winning in a position, I get stressed out, blunder something and lose. Is this something I can fix?