November Blitz and Memes

Hi. My name is Magnus Carlsen. - Magnus Carlsen.

Hello, my fellow movie lovers, and welcome to another edition of Blitz and Memes. If you're a fan of puzzles taken from amateur online blitz tournaments, then you have come to the right place, because that is what I do.

As always, the tactics have been assembled from the Japan Chess Federation's monthly blitz tournament: TGIF Blitz. The tourney takes place on the 3rd Friday of every month, 21:00 JST, right here on chess.com. It consists of seven rounds of blitz, with a time control of 3+2; and is open to all JCF club members.

The memes on the other hand, were sought out from all 8 corners of the InterWebs...

Good luck trying to solve all five tactics on the first attempt...one of them is literally so hard, it shouldn't even be a puzzle.

So, without further ado, lets get to the Blitz and Memes.

Obstacle Course

We start things off with a tactic from the 5th round. Purupurukun, playing Black, has set up a dangerous attack on the kingside, but there is one obstacle in his way...

Can you find a way to breakthrough?

Jump On In

In the second round yuutin, playing Black was able to take advantage of some poor piece placement.

Can you find this familiar pattern?

Deflector Array

In the third round JamMasterInsane, playing White, was able to find a dirty little tactic to put an end to the festivities.

Can you target Black's main weakness?

Time is Short

I had the pleasure of watching this calamity live. In the 5th round higapon, playing White, had a mate in 6 on the board, but with less than 3 seconds left he timed out in this winning position, giving yuutin untold joy...

Can you find mate in 6?

Frontal Assault

For our final installment, we once again come to the 5th round. IM rnanjo, playing White is able to formulate a deadly attack.

The game featured two brilliant moves, and this puzzle was so hard, I considered not including it at all...Well, Good Luck!

And that was it, that was November Blitz and Memes. Congrats to IM rnanjo on winning, 6/7 with the tiebreak.

And an even bigger congratulations to the one or two of you puzzle GMs who were able to solve these tactics on the first attempt, I salute you!

As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to share these puzzles with your friends down at the bar or movie theater.

Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.