Milestone: 2600 on Lichess Puzzles

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Amir Afsai physics2112 2600 Lichess Puzzles 2026-06-16

It's graduation day at our school. The students that I taught for six years have become adults. Their speeches invoked the struggles of the past that made them who they are today and those of the future that they'll have to overcome in order to become who they want to be. I joined Lichess in February 2022, closed above 2500 on Puzzles in May 2024, and only crossed 2600 this morning. As struggles go, reaching 2600 was more of a challenge than crossing 1600 on Chess.com Rapid or 1700 on Lichess Blitz.

Some puzzles conclude too soon, others go on for too long. Some are instructive, others are an exercise in brute calculation. Some puzzles have a clear idea at their core, others are unfairly nuanced. Some are rewarding, others are disappointing. My least favorite puzzles are of the king-and-pawns endgame variety. Solving them requires holding in memory multiple branches of a decision tree simultaneously and calculating each branch six or seven moves deep. This report examines the puzzles that tried to stand in my way of 2600.

Lichess Puzzles 2026-06-16
Puzzle 1: Black to move

What I remember about this puzzle was eventually understanding that if my pawn were to reach f2 and White's knight were to land on f1, I would never be able to promote because the knight could always attack f1 from g3 or e3 and my king would be helpless to chase the knight away. Furthermore, in advancing my king I needed to avoid squares where White's knight could fork and force a draw.

Now, whom to advance first, the pawn with 1...f3 or the king with 1...Ke4/Kd5/Kf5? Advancing the pawn with 1...f3 would force 2.Na3, and then the pawn can't advance further on account of 2...f2 3.Nc4+: White uses the tempo on my king for 4.Nd2 whence the knight targets the promotion square. Since 1...f3 is a forcing move that can't be followed up with another pawn move, what candidate moves does my king have after 1...f3 2.Na3? The natural 2...Ke4 looks harmless.

White's only hope would be to land his knight on d2, which he could do via 3.Nb1/Nc4. And here there is a problem. If I push 3...f2, White continues 4.Nc4 and my pawn can't promote on account of 4...f1=Q 5.Nd2+ forking. What if my king advances with 3...Kd3 so that White's knight cannot land on d2? That fails to 4.Ne5+, again forking.

Check back soon for more....

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