Chess Newsletter Issue 48

Chess With Ramkar

Author

Ramalingam Karthik P
August 08, 2025

In partnership with

Hey!

Welcome back to Chess With Ramkar—your chess newsletter for tactical workouts, practical insights, and sharp ideas to level up your chess game.

Let’s jump into the action! 👇

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🔥 Tactic Zone—Can You Crack These?

🧩 Puzzle 1: Mate in three

White to play and mate in three

🧩 Puzzle 2: Stalemate draw

White to play and make a draw

🧩 Puzzle 3: Dominate the black queen

White to play and dominate the black queen

👉 Send your answers by replying to this email ([email protected])

—Top solvers get featured in the next issue

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📘 Mini-Lesson of the day: [Opposition]

Today’s theme is about Opposition in chess.

💡 Key Insights:

  •  Opposition (or direct opposition) is a situation in which both kings are two squares apart on the same rank or file.

    Since kings cannot move adjacent to each other, each king prevents the other's advance, creating a mutual blockade. In this situation, the player not having to move is said to have the opposition

Let us see an example to understand this

White to play and win

If white captures the b6 pawn, black would play Kb8 and get an opposition and would end in a draw.

So, white should play Ka6 to get the opposition, and black plays Kb8, and then white captures the pawn on b6 to get the opposition to eventually win.

Ka6 Kb8 Kb6 Ka8 Kc7 Ka7 Kd7 Kb8 C7 wins

➡️ Check it out here →

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📚 Puzzles from the Recent Tournaments

White is completely winning this game.

However, a great move by black will help him to escape with a draw

Here, it is Black to move. Find the move that Black played to escape with a draw in the next 2 moves.

Find the continuation for Black and share your answers by replying to [email protected].

Black to play and make a draw

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🚀 Help Me Grow This Chess Tribe

Found this helpful? Share it with a chess friend.
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Thanks for reading!

Keep your bishops sneaky and your pawns poisonous. 😉
♟️
Ramalingam Karthik
FIDE Rating Peak: 2086
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