Chess.com Daily Puzzle

About Chess.com Daily Puzzle

The Daily Puzzle is the oldest daily feature on Chess.com, a large chess site with web, iPhone and Android apps. Each day it shows one position taken from a real game, often an over-the-board tournament game or a game played on the site, and asks you to find the winning continuation. The current curator, National Master Dane Mattson, has picked the puzzles since November 2019 and looks for positions with one clearly best line.

The difficulty follows the week. Monday is meant to be the most approachable puzzle, and each day gets harder up to the Sunday puzzle, which is aimed at strong club players and masters. So a beginner and a titled player can both play every day and know roughly what to expect.

You start each puzzle with five hearts. A wrong move or a hint costs one heart, and the Coach on the page reacts to what you play. If you run out of hearts you can still finish the line. When you are done you can share a row of hearts with a link to the puzzle, read the comments under it, and watch a short video in which a master walks through the solution.

Solving each day builds a streak shown on a puzzle calendar. You have 48 hours from a puzzle's release to solve it and keep the streak, and the calendar also lets you go back to older puzzles. The Daily Puzzle is free; you need a free Chess.com account to keep your streak. It suits anyone who wants one short chess problem a day rather than an open-ended run of rated puzzles.

How to play Chess.com Daily Puzzle

1. Open chess.com/daily-chess-puzzle, or the Daily Puzzle card on the home screen of the Chess.com app.
2. Check whose move it is and look at the whole board before you touch a piece.
3. Play the first move of the winning line by dragging or clicking the piece.
4. When the opponent replies, find the next move until the puzzle is solved.
5. Use a hint if you are stuck; each hint or wrong move costs one of your five hearts.
6. When you finish, read the comments or watch the video explanation, then share your hearts if you like.

Screenshots

Tips

• Look at checks, captures and threats first, for both sides.
• Match your expectations to the day: Monday is often a short tactic, while the weekend puzzles can need several precise moves.
• If the first obvious move does not work, ask why; the puzzle usually turns on the defence it misses.
• Turn on Hard Mode in the puzzle settings if you want to solve without the Coach's tips.
• Missed a day? Solve the previous puzzle from the calendar within 48 hours to keep your streak.
• Watch the video even when you solved it; it often shows the defences you did not consider.

Questions