Puzzles
Puzzles are a great way to improve your rating through practice and pattern recognition.
The amount of puzzles you can do depends on your membership type:
Membership type |
Puzzles per day
|
Basic | 3 puzzles per day, plus one Puzzle Rush and one Battle each day. |
Premium | Unlimited puzzles, Puzzle Rush, and Puzzle Battle! |
To solve a puzzle, you can click 'Puzzles' in the left-side menu on any Chess.com page. If you're on your homescreen, you can click on 'Puzzles' from the top features to try solving the Puzzle of the Day!
Here are the different types of puzzles you can choose from:
Rated Puzzles
Playing these puzzles will give you a puzzle rating similar to a chess rating. Your rating increases when you solve a puzzle correctly and decreases when you don't. The change in your rating depends on how quickly you complete the puzzle and the puzzle's rating compared to yours.
After completing a puzzle, you can view your stats on the right side of the screen. The graph shows your progress for the current session - if you close or refresh the tab this will reset:
Here's all the information you can see:
Puzzle Rating: If the puzzle rating is lower than your puzzle rating you will earn fewer points. If it’s higher, you will earn more
Target Time: This is the suggested time to complete the puzzle, based on your current puzzle rating
Speed Bonus: This is awarded based on how close you get to the target time
Pass Rate: This shows how often chess.com users successfully solve the puzzle
Attempts: This is the total number of times the puzzle has been played by all users
Themes: These are the categories the puzzle is tagged with
Rated puzzles are a great learning tool, but keep in mind that your puzzle rating may not accurately reflect your chess rating!
Puzzle Rush
Puzzle Rush is an exciting and fast-paced feature designed to help you sharpen your chess tactics. In Puzzle Rush, you have either 3 or 5 minutes to solve as many puzzles as you can. However, be careful—if you get three puzzles wrong, the game ends, regardless of how much time is left.
Your puzzle rating won’t be affected by your performance in Puzzle Rush, so aim for that high score without worrying!
Puzzle Rush - Survival mode
If you prefer a more relaxed pace, try Survival Mode, where there’s no time limit. In this mode, you can continue solving puzzles for as long as you like—just make sure to not get three puzzles wrong!
After completing a Puzzle Rush session, you’ll see a summary of your stats, showing how your performance in that round compares to your past scores.
On the right side of the screen, there will be a list of all the puzzles you encountered. You can click on any puzzle to open it in a separate window for a closer look or to try solving it again if you got it wrong.
When you enter Puzzle Rush, your top score and leaderboard position will be displayed on the right side of the screen. You can see how you rank among your friends by clicking on the 'Friends' tab, or see a list of your personal best scores under the 'Personal' tab.
Your best Puzzle Rush score will also be displayed on your profile, alongside your chess and tactics ratings.
Puzzle Battle
Puzzle battle is a 3-minute puzzle rush, but played against another player! See who can get the most right in 3 minutes!
Check out this article to learn more about Puzzle Battle: What is Puzzle Battle?
Daily Puzzle
The Daily Puzzle is available to all members starting at midnight Pacific Time. After solving it, you can scroll down to view and engage with comments left by other members.
Check out this article to learn more about Daily Puzzles: How do I find the Daily Puzzle?
Custom Puzzles
Custom Puzzles, formerly known as 'Learning mode,' offer a personalized way to practice chess tactics. In this mode, you can choose the themes and rating range of the puzzles you want to work on, allowing you to focus on specific areas of your game. There’s no time pressure and no impact on your rating—just an opportunity for pure learning!
The panel on the right side lets you choose an area to focus on and shows the percentage of problem types you have solved correctly. These statistics are based on your rated puzzle scores.
Select the themes you want to practice by checking the corresponding boxes. You will then be presented with puzzles tagged with those themes.
Additionally, you can opt to include all puzzles or only those you have previously failed and set a specific rating range.
Check out this article on Chess.com to read more about some of the many possible themes and types of tactics: Chess Tactics | 38 Definitions and Examples