Chess Puzzles

How it works

A chess puzzle gives you a position and one job, usually written as “White to move, mate in 2”. Mate in 2 means you can force checkmate on your second move, whatever the other side does. Your first move is called the key. After it, the defender picks the best reply it has, and you finish the game with the mating move.

The key is the hard part. Moves that look strong but allow an escape are called tries, and a good puzzle is full of them. A check that drives the king away, a capture that gives the defender time, a queen move that blocks your own rook: each one fails to a single reply, and spotting that reply is the real skill. The best keys are often quiet moves that give no check at all but leave the defender with nothing useful to do.

What makes a good one

• Exactly one key move, checked by a computer, so the answer is never a matter of taste.
• Real positions from real games, not random piles of pieces.
• When you get it wrong, it shows you the defence that saves the king, so you learn something.
• Difficulty that rises steadily, so you can keep a daily habit without hitting a wall.

Strategies that help

Checks, captures, threats. Look at forcing moves first, but don’t stop there. If no check works, look for the quiet move.

Count the escape squares. List every square the enemy king could run to. The key often takes away the last free one or sets up a mate on it.

Answer every reply. For each key you consider, go through the defender’s options one by one. If even one reply has no mate after it, it’s a try, not the key.

Look for the piece in the way. Sometimes the key is moving your own piece out of a line so another piece can mate.

Our take

Our chess puzzle is Goodnight King: one mate in 2 a day for everyone, gentle on Monday and harder by Sunday. The positions come from the Lichess open puzzle database (CC0) and are re-checked by our own solver. There is also a Ladder of rising puzzles. If you like reading a board for the one move that works, see arrow puzzles.