About Chess Puzzles
Chess puzzles are the fastest way to get sharper at chess, and here you can solve them free, right in your browser. Every position on this page is a forced checkmate: find the winning move, watch the computer try its best defense, and finish the job in one, two or three moves.
Start with the daily chess puzzle — a new position every day, the same for every player, with a timer and a spoiler-free result you can share. Then chase a high score in Puzzle Streak, where the positions get tougher the longer you last and a single wrong move ends your run. Prefer to learn at your own pace? The Mate in 1, Mate in 2 and Mate in 3 practice sets let you retry, ask for hints and reveal the full solution whenever you like.
There is nothing to install and no account to create. The board flips so the side to move is always at the bottom, your progress is saved on your device, and everything works just as well on a phone as on a laptop.
How to play Chess Puzzles
- 1
Check whose move it is
The side to move is always at the bottom of the board, and the bar below the board tells you the goal — for example White to move, mate in 2.
- 2
Make your move
Click a piece to see its legal moves (dots for empty squares, rings for captures), then click the destination. You can also drag and drop. When a pawn reaches the last rank, pick the piece you want it to become.
- 3
Let the computer defend
In a mate in 2 or 3, a correct move is answered automatically by the defender's most stubborn reply. Keep going until the king has no escape. On the final move, any checkmate counts — you don't have to match our exact solution.
- 4
Learn from mistakes
A wrong move shakes the board and is taken back. In practice and the daily puzzle you can try again (mistakes are counted). In Puzzle Streak the run ends and the winning line is played out so you can see the idea.
- 5
Use hints wisely
Press Hint once to highlight the piece that should move, and again to show the move itself with an arrow. In practice you can also reveal the whole solution. Hints are counted in your daily result.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Click / tap | Select a piece, then click a highlighted square |
| Drag | Drag a piece onto its destination square |
| Arrow keys + Enter | Move the cursor and pick up or drop a piece |
| H | Hint (first highlights the piece, then shows the move) |
| N | Next puzzle in practice modes |
| Q / R / B / N | Choose a piece when a pawn promotes |
| Esc | Deselect the current piece |
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Chess Puzzles tips and strategy
Checks, captures, threats — in that order
Strong players scan every forcing move before anything else. List each check you can give, then each capture, then each move that creates a threat. Most puzzle solutions are hiding in that list.
Start from the enemy king
Count the king's escape squares. If it has only one or two, ask which of your pieces could cover them — the mating pattern often becomes obvious once you see which squares are missing.
Don't dismiss the sacrifice
Puzzles love a queen or rook offered for free. If a check looks like it simply loses material, play it out in your head: does taking the piece drag the king or a defender onto a fatal square?
Look for quiet moves in longer mates
In a mate in 2 or 3 the key move is sometimes not a check at all. A quiet move that takes away the last flight square, or sets up an unstoppable threat, can be stronger than any check.
Watch the back rank
A king tucked behind its own pawns with no air is a classic target. A rook or queen landing on the back rank — often after a deflection sacrifice — ends the game on the spot.
Picture the best defense
Before you move, predict how your opponent will reply. If you can't answer every reasonable defense with mate, keep looking. Our puzzles always defend with the move that holds out the longest.
Accuracy first, speed later
It is tempting to rush the daily puzzle for a fast time, but a wrong move costs more than a few seconds of thought. Solve carefully and speed will come naturally as you learn the patterns.
How the daily chess puzzle works
A new daily chess puzzle unlocks at midnight in your local time zone, and every player gets the same position. On weekdays it is a mate in 2; on Saturdays and Sundays it is a slightly tougher mate in 3. The timer starts only when you press Start puzzle, so you can open the page and settle in first.
When you finish, you'll see your time, mistakes and hints, plus a spoiler-free share grid: green squares for correct moves, red for misses and a light bulb for each hint. Your result counts toward your site-wide daily streak. Come back after solving and you'll find the final position, your stats and a countdown to the next puzzle.
Where our puzzles come from
Every puzzle is original. We generate positions from thousands of computer-played games, so they look like real games — developed pieces, castled kings and familiar pawn structures — rather than random piles of pieces. Each candidate position is then checked by an exhaustive solver that tests every legal defense.
A position only becomes a puzzle if the checkmate is forced, there is exactly one winning first move, no shorter mate exists, and each of your follow-up moves along the main line is the only one that keeps the forced mate. That is why a mate in 2 on this site really is a mate in 2, with no lucky alternatives. Puzzles in the practice sets are ordered from gentler to trickier, so working through a set in order is a natural way to improve.
Mating patterns worth knowing
Many puzzles repeat a handful of classic patterns. Learning to spot them is the single biggest shortcut to solving faster:
- Back-rank mate: a rook or queen checks along the back rank while the king is boxed in by its own pawns.
- Smothered mate: a knight checks a king that is completely surrounded by its own pieces.
- Arabian mate: a rook and knight trap a king in the corner.
- Anastasia's mate: a knight covers the escape squares while a rook or queen mates along the edge file.
- Epaulette mate: the king is blocked on both sides by its own pieces and mated from the front.
- Double and discovered check: moving one piece reveals an attack from another — double checks can only be answered by moving the king.
Each puzzle tells you its theme once you solve it. If you enjoy spotting patterns, try our Logic Puzzles and Sudoku next.
A little history
Chess problems are nearly as old as chess itself. Collections of composed positions called mansubat were written for shatranj, the medieval forerunner of chess, more than a thousand years ago. In the 1800s newspaper chess columns made the mate in two a daily habit for thousands of readers, and puzzle books have been a training staple ever since.
Today, solving tactics puzzles is one of the most widely recommended ways to improve at chess, because it trains the pattern recognition that decides real games. If you'd rather play a full game against the computer, try Checkers or Connect 4, or browse all of our board games.
Frequently asked questions
What is a mate in 2 chess puzzle?
A mate in 2 is a position where the side to move can force checkmate in two of its own moves, no matter how the opponent defends. You make a first move, your opponent replies, and your second move delivers checkmate.
Is there a new daily chess puzzle every day?
Yes. A new daily puzzle unlocks at midnight in your local time zone, and everyone gets the same position that day. Weekday puzzles are mate in 2 and weekend puzzles are mate in 3.
What if I find a different checkmate than the solution?
On your final move, any legal move that delivers checkmate is accepted. Earlier moves in a longer puzzle must match the only move that keeps the mate forced — our solver guarantees there is exactly one.
How does Puzzle Streak work?
You solve puzzles back to back, starting with mate-in-one warm-ups and moving on to mate in 2 and mate in 3 as your streak grows. One wrong move ends the run, the solution is shown, and your streak is posted to the leaderboard.
Are chess puzzles good for beginners?
Yes — the Mate in 1 set is ideal for beginners because it teaches how the pieces work together to trap a king. Each practice set starts with easier positions, and hints let you get unstuck without giving the whole answer away.
Do chess puzzles actually improve your game?
Solving tactics puzzles is one of the most common training methods recommended by coaches, because it builds the pattern recognition you need to spot winning moves in your own games. Short, regular sessions tend to work better than occasional long ones.
Is it free, and do I need an account?
It's completely free and there's no sign-up. Your progress, best streak and daily results are saved in your browser, and you can pick a nickname for the leaderboard if you want to.