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

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