French & Caro Puzzles

Sharpen your chess skills. Win faster. Find checkmates quickly after 1.e4 in Semi-Open Games. Look for checks. When it is your move in chess, you must first look for checks. If you find a check that forces checkmate, then you don't need to look any further. Play the mate. Game over. You win. Good job. These 200 puzzles train your eyes to find possible mates in Semi-Open Games that begin 1.e4 (without the King Pawn 1.e4 e5 or Sicilian Defence 1.e4 c5). You have four sections with 50 mates in one and 50 mates in two with each color. The last half of puzzles in each section come from French Defence 1.e4 e6 games. A fourth of the games are from Caro-Kann 1.e6 c6 games. The rest are other 1.e4 openings such as Queen Fianchetto 1...b6, Scandinavian Defence 1...d5, Alekhine Defence 1...Nf6, Modern Defence 1...g6, and Pirc Defence 1...d6.Tim Sawyer gives you a wide variety of common mates that go way beyond the simplest mates. How are the puzzles easy? Because every move is a check. Even the mates in two begin with a check. How are they puzzles? Because there is more than one possible check. The author's goal is for you to solve these puzzles faster and faster each times you go through them. There are three levels of skill. First, you learn what checkmates can occur in the opening. Second, you learn to solve them correctly. Third, you learn them so well that you cannot miss them. Puzzles 1 to 100 are all White to move. White starts at the bottom of those diagrams. Puzzles 101 to 200 are all Black to move. Black starts at the bottom of those diagrams. Repeated practice makes you a winner. Go forth and win!