Select one or more category to create your set!

Recommended

Healthy mix

A bit of everything. You don't know what to expect, so you remain ready for anything! Just like in real games.

Phases

Bishop endgame

An endgame with only bishops and pawns.

Endgame

A tactic during the last phase of the game.

Knight endgame

An endgame with only knights and pawns.

Middlegame

A tactic during the second phase of the game.

Opening

A tactic during the first phase of the game.

Pawn endgame

An endgame with only pawns.

Queen endgame

An endgame with only queens and pawns.

Queen and Rook

An endgame with only queens, rooks and pawns.

Rook endgame

An endgame with only rooks and pawns.

Motifs

Advanced pawn

One of your pawns is deep into the opponent position, maybe threatening to promote.

Attacking f2 or f7

An attack focusing on the f2 or f7 pawn, such as in the fried liver opening.

Capture the defender

Removing a piece that is critical to defence of another piece, allowing the now undefended piece to be captured on a following move.

Kingside attack

An attack of the opponent's king, after they castled on the king side.

Discovered attack

Moving a piece (such as a knight), that previously blocked an attack by a long range piece (such as a rook), out of the way of that piece.

Double check

Checking with two pieces at once, as a result of a discovered attack where both the moving piece and the unveiled piece attack the opponent's king.

Exposed king

A tactic involving a king with few defenders around it, often leading to checkmate.

Fork

A move where the moved piece attacks two opponent pieces at once.

Hanging piece

A tactic involving an opponent piece being undefended or insufficiently defended and free to capture.

Pin

A tactic involving pins, where a piece is unable to move without revealing an attack on a higher value piece.

Queenside attack

An attack of the opponent's king, after they castled on the queen side.

Sacrifice

A tactic involving giving up material in the short-term, to gain an advantage again after a forced sequence of moves.

Skewer

A motif involving a high value piece being attacked, moving out the way, and allowing a lower value piece behind it to be captured or attacked, the inverse of a pin.

Trapped piece

A piece is unable to escape capture as it has limited moves.

Advanced

Attraction

An exchange or sacrifice encouraging or forcing an opponent piece to a square that allows a follow-up tactic.

Clearance

A move, often with tempo, that clears a square, file or diagonal for a follow-up tactical idea.

Defensive move

A precise move or sequence of moves that is needed to avoid losing material or another advantage.

Deflection

A move that distracts an opponent piece from another duty that it performs, such as guarding a key square. Sometimes also called « overloading. »

Interference

Moving a piece between two opponent pieces to leave one or both opponent pieces undefended, such as a knight on a defended square between two rooks.

Intermezzo

Instead of playing the expected move, first interpose another move posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer. Also known as « Zwischenzug » or « In between. »

Quiet move

A move that does neither make a check or capture, nor an immediate threat to capture, but does prepare a more hidden unavoidable threat for a later move.

X-Ray attack

A piece attacks or defends a square, through an enemy piece.

Zugzwang

The opponent is limited in the moves they can make, and all moves worsen their position.

Mates

Anastasia's mate

A knight and rook or queen team up to trap the opposing king between the side of the board and a friendly piece.

Arabian mate

A knight and a rook team up to trap the opposing king on a corner of the board.

Back rank mate

Checkmate the king on the home rank, when it is trapped there by its own pieces.

Boden's mate

Two attacking bishops on criss-crossing diagonals deliver mate to a king obstructed by friendly pieces.

Double bishop mate

Two attacking bishops on adjacent diagonals deliver mate to a king obstructed by friendly pieces.

Dovetail mate

A queen delivers mate to an adjacent king, whose only two escape squares are obstructed by friendly pieces.

Hook mate

Checkmate with a rook, knight, and pawn along with one enemy pawn to limit the enemy king's escape.

Checkmate

Win the game with style.

Mate in 1

Deliver checkmate in one move.

Mate in 2

Deliver checkmate in two moves.

Mate in 3

Deliver checkmate in three moves.

Mate in 4

Deliver checkmate in four moves.

Mate in 5 or more

Figure out a long mating sequence.

Smothered mate

A checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because it is surrounded (or smothered) by its own pieces.

Special moves

Castling

Bring the king to safety, and deploy the rook for attack.

En passant

A tactic involving the en passant rule, where a pawn can capture an opponent pawn that has bypassed it using its initial two-square move.

Promotion

Promote one of your pawn to a queen or minor piece.

Underpromotion

Promotion to a knight, bishop, or rook.

Goals

Advantage

Seize your chance to get a decisive advantage. (200cp ≤ eval ≤ 600cp)

Crushing

Spot the opponent blunder to obtain a crushing advantage. (eval ≥ 600cp)

Equality

Come back from a losing position, and secure a draw or a balanced position. (eval ≤ 200cp)

Lengths

Long puzzle

Three moves to win.

One-move puzzle

A puzzle that is only one move long.

Short puzzle

Two moves to win.

Very long puzzle

Four moves or more to win.

Origin

Master games

Puzzles from games played by titled players.

Master vs Master games

Puzzles from games between two titled players.

Super GM games

Puzzles from games played by the best players in the world.