How to Solve the Chess.com Daily Puzzle

Over 1.5 million (and counting) users have made the Chess.com Daily Puzzle a part of their daily chess routine. As the Daily Puzzle curator, I aim to excite, challenge, and sharpen your puzzle-solving skills. In this article, we'll focus on tips to help you solve the Daily Puzzle. Whether it be a Monday puzzle, intended to be the most beginner-friendly puzzle of the week, or a master-level Sunday sizzler, these ideas will serve as helpful companions on your puzzle-solving journey that may also help you gain the upperhand in your own games. Well, these puzzles aren't going to solve themselves, let's get started!

Parachuting into the puzzle

When you first see a Daily Puzzle, it can often feel like you have parachuted into unknown territory, completely disoriented by the unfamiliar terrain. Before we try to find a move amidst the chaos, let's better understand our 64-squared surroundings by asking a couple of basic questions.

1. Whose move is it anyway?

It may sound like a simple question, and the puzzle does tell you whether it is White or Black to move. This question, however, has practical importance because sometimes it isn’t immediately obvious which way is up. Take, for example, this position, which we’ll revisit later. Is this checkmate?

2. What's the material count?

When you’re playing a game you may be well aware of the material count, but jumping into a Daily Puzzle means we need to figure out the chess scoreboard manually. Does one side have more material than the other, or is it balanced? This can give us a clearer sense of urgency. Take, for example, this simplified position: 

On the other hand, this position is a completely different story: 

What Does It Mean To "Solve" A Daily Puzzle?

Almost all of the Daily Puzzles I present have the goal of delivering checkmate or winning a decisive amount of material. How do we know which goal to pursue? Besides the puzzle title, which tries to give a slight hint at what you need to achieve, we know there is a solution to be found—we’re trying to find the best move for the solving side. To ease our way into the puzzle-solving experience, let’s begin with an impossible puzzle! 

April first tends to have some rather unique puzzles, and this one is no exception. It's White to move, and it is, indeed, an impossible puzzle—impossible not to solve, that is! 

Perhaps you won’t encounter this type of whimsical puzzle too often besides on April first, but like any other puzzle, there are learning opportunities to be discovered. This puzzle may only have a single path of legal moves, but like all other Daily Puzzles, there is a current or "flow" in the position to help guide us. When solving the Daily Puzzle, we initially want to seek a forcing path in which only one series of moves leads to solving the puzzle. 

Use The Force: Forcing Moves First!

If you watch any of WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni's excellent Daily Puzzle explainer videos, you will hear her encourage us always to prioritize the most forcing moves. We want to emphasize checks, captures, and threats (in that order) as the initial core of our puzzle-solving process.

These forcing moves speak to the goal of almost every Daily Puzzle: checkmate the king or win a decisive amount of material. Consistently looking at forcing moves first helps us decide if we can win the game immediately, win material, or both! 

Checks: We always want to check for checks first, as directly attacking the king is the most forcing move possible. Your opponent must respond to an attack against the king. Let's check out the following example: 

It's White to move. A quick material count reveals that Black is up a piece, enjoying an extra light-squared bishop. We have three checks, but only one of these checks stands out as safe and strong. Let's leap forward with the knight!

We forked the king and rook. Now that the king is out of the way, it's tempting to capture the rook. When we play this move, however, the Daily Puzzle encourages us to reflect.

Our knight leaps into the souvenir shop, collecting a rook, yet this doesn't solve the puzzle. I encourage you to check out my Daily Puzzle explainer video to understand why that capture doesn't lead to an advantageous position, but let's set our fork down and retry this puzzle using a "Checkmate Box" visualization tool. 

Whenever the king has a shortage of safe squares available, the checkmate alarm bells should be ringing! I've highlighted all of the squares that are unavailable for the king in red. This means the king trapped in the "checkmate box" only has two available squares—the blue highlights on d7 and d8 are all that separate us from winning the game. How can we shrink the checkmate box to a single square? Let's hop to it again with Nf6+.

The king has no legal moves available.  Before we jump into the souvenir shop and capture the rook, we always want to check our checks first and only then consider captures. How can we win the game in a single move? 

The rook and knight unite, wrapping up the checkmate box! I won't keep all the fun to myself, so go ahead and enjoy solving this puzzle as well!

Some checks are more forcing than others.

It's White to move in a rather chaotic-looking situation. The material balance is not clearly in our favor, especially with two dangerous passed pawns storming down the board toward promotion. Our rook is also under attack, so what happens if we check the king?

When you check the king, you generally want to reduce the king's options as much as possible. This rook check actually increases the king's mobility, allowing it to move to the newly vacated d4- and d5-squares. Since there isn't a clear follow-up attack after the rook check, let's resurface and think inside the (checkmate) box.

Thinking inside the checkmate box, there are only two legal squares available to the king. How can we attack the king, preparing to shrink the box? By asking that question, we can find 1.Bg2+!

The king is on the run and is suddenly attacking our rook. How do we defend the rook and attack the king, closing the checkmate box for good? 

Some checks are more forcing than others! We selected the checks that reduced the opponent's options, sealing the deal with a nice bishop checkmate, x-raying the defense of the rook on d6. Now it's your turn to flex the power of the two bishops! 

Captures come next

Checkmate may end the game, but the second most forcing type of move, captures, can help you gain a winning advantage. The more of the pieces you capture favorably or for free, the more likely it is that you'll win the game. This simple recipe can help you defeat a Beginner Bot, as well as help you solve more involved Daily Puzzles. Take, for example, the following puzzle created by a Chess.com member and Daily Puzzle enthusiast.

We're going to follow the captures, working our way from the end of the puzzle to the beginning. It's White to move, and we're ready to break a rather tense queen staring contest. We have one attacker (the queen) against one defender (the pawn). Our rook is also attacking the defending pawn, but we don't want to give up a five-point piece for that pawn.

What is behind that pawn? An unprotected rook. If we could convince that pawn to move, then the rook would be hanging. By following the captures, we can win material by trading queens!

The staring contest is over—we are currently up a full queen, so the pawn tries to maintain the material balance by capturing our queen.

Material equilibrium is restored for a moment, but now the e-file floodgates have been opened!

As the capturing dust settles, we're up a full rook! Being able to see this dream position in advance and work backward is a great skill to develop with practice. Now that we have seen the end of this puzzle, let's follow the captures from the beginning to see how we can reach this dream position.

In an ideal world, when we attack a piece, we'd love to have more attackers than defenders against the target. In this case, we're attacking two knights, but both knights are defended at least as many times as we are attacking them. Thankfully, we can borrow a page out of the "some checks are more forcing than others playbook" and find the most forcing capture that limits our opponent's options. 

Target one: The knight on d5. 

Our light-squared bishop on e4 is attacking the centralized knight on d5. Let's see what happens if we capture this knight immediately. 

Capturing the knight on d5 allowed two reasonable defensive replies when we did not have a clear follow-up. Rather than capturing the knight on d5, can a tactical signal lead us to another capture? The knight is pinned down to the queen on the long light-squared diagonal because if the knight moves, our bishop will happily capture the far more valuable queen. 

Target Two: The knight on e7

Since the knight on d5 is pinned to its own queen, it's practically frozen in place. This means that capturing the other knight limits the reasonable defensive options to a single move: recapturing with the rook. Thanks to this forcing capture, our task of visualizing the path forward is much simpler. Bxe7! is our first move. 

We captured the knight on e7, so if Black doesn't recapture the piece, then we're simply up an entire minor piece. If the knight tries to capture the bishop, we capture the queen, so the rook steps forward to regain the material balance.

Our rook is x-raying the rival rook on e7 through our bishop and the pawn on e6. The rook is only defended once by its knight on d5, so we can make the rook an undefended piece by capturing the knight with our bishop.

We capture another knight, reducing the defensive options. If Black doesn't capture, we're up an entire piece. If the pawn captures our bishop, our rook will capture its unprotected and exposed rival on e7. This means that if Black wants to try and maintain the material balance, the queen will capture our bishop.

Does this look familiar? We reach our dream destination after trading queens and winning the rook. Now that we've broken down the puzzle one capture at a time, feel free to play through the puzzle and win material!

Threats are our next step

Checks and captures can be a lethal combination, but the third type of forcing move, threats, is also an essential ingredient in our winning recipe. The most common threats are a combination of the first two forcing types of moves—threatening checkmate or winning material. 

A threat is a forcing move not yet realized!

In this puzzle, it's Black to move. When you solve a Daily Puzzle, it is often the case that if the opponent was allowed to move first, there would likely be some sort of threat realized against your position. A great way to help solve a Daily Puzzle is to flip the script. If it were the opponent's turn to move, what would they play?

In this case, both of our knights are hanging, so the opponent is ready to win material. Thankfully, it's our move, and we know what to do: Consider forcing moves first! Our most forcing move to consider is 1...Ne2. 

This knight check looks like checkmate as the king is unable to move, thanks to our light-squared bishop shutting down the long diagonal. Before you bust out your checkmate dance, however, we always want to check if we're blundering. In this case, the light-squared bishop could capture our knight, raining on our checkmate parade, at least for now...

We prioritize forcing moves first, not because they always win the game. Often they can force our opponent to play a good move, as was the case with our premature knight leap to e2. Forcing moves give us a forecast of what could happen if we would follow that current of play. Our knight wants to leap to e2 to deliver checkmate, but it isn't working just yet. Are there any other clues in the position to help us? 

White's queen and bishop are unprotected. If we move our light-squared bishop, we'd provoke a staring contest between the queens. Before giving up on our checkmate dreams on e2, what obstacle do we need to overcome? The bishop on h5 is guarding e2. Is there any way we can prevent the bishop from protecting that square? By asking that question, we can play an "impossible" looking move: 1...Bf3!!

We drop the mic, or the bishop on f3! Our queen is threatening to capture its rival on the newly opened c-file while also x-raying the defense of the knight on c3. Our brave light-squared bishop may be hanging, but it is threatening its light-squared rival while shielding the knight's dream checkmate square on e2. One threat is often easily defended, but here, there are just too many threats to handle! White could capture the bishop and hang the queen, losing a decisive amount of material. In the puzzle, the queen captures its rival. 

Allowing a beautiful finish: 2...Ne2 checkmate! That checkmate is so sweet I'll have you play out this "mic drop" tactic:

Common Daily Puzzle Obstacles And How to Overcome Them

Carefully and consistently considering checks, captures, and threats will help you make tremendous progress on your Daily Puzzle solving journey, as well as seize tactical opportunities in your own games.  On the road to puzzle-solving improvement, however, there are a number of unwelcome passengers that may derail your momentum. Thankfully, these common problems have practical solutions that will help you elevate your game! 

Which Way is Up? A Matter of Perspective

As I hinted at the beginning of the article, knowing which side's turn it is to move is a seemingly simple but essential way to orient ourselves to not only the position but the board itself. A surprisingly common visualization error can occur if we're not entirely sure which way is up, like the following puzzle:

Unlike other chess media that always place the white pieces on the bottom of a diagram, the Chess.com Daily Puzzle always looks at the position from the perspective of the solver. Whichever side is to move, the solving side will always be heading up the board. This means if it is White to move, we will look at the position from White's perspective (the a1'square will always be the bottom left-hand corner square). A puzzle with Black to move will be the opposite. The h8-square will be the bottom left-hand corner square, and the solver will be heading up the board. 

Since it's Black to move, we're heading up the board, and the white king is on the eighth rank, not the first rank! Without pawns on the board, this can be disorienting, as we find out later in the puzzle. The first move in the puzzle solution is the forcing 1...Rd8+, forcing the rook to shield its king on the eighth rank with 2.Rg8. 

The "checkmate box" inspires our knight to dream of delivering checkmate on g6. To prevent an exchange of rooks, the knight leaps to the f8-square, allowing White to promote the pawn into a queen.

The pawn promotes to a queen, so White is definitely heading down the board! Now, it's time for the knight to shine! 

We received several comments in the Daily Puzzle discussion forum asking why the puzzle ends here. It's checkmate because the pawn cannot capture backward, and the rook is pinned to its own king. To avoid this confusion, always remember that the solving side is always heading up the board, and double-check the orientation when you don't see any pawns on the board! Now that we know the opponent is ready to promote a pawn, let's rain on this checkmate parade and play out the puzzle:

Tunnel Vision

Whether you're a beginner or a grandmaster, anyone who plays chess can relate to tunnel vision in one form or another. There's so much to consider, and we can't possibly see everything! Let's explore a relatable example that highlights several aspects of tunnel vision jam-packed into a single puzzle. 

Tunnel Vision Issue: Only Seeing The Pattern You Want to See: "I Go Here, Then I Go There!"

It's really exciting to see that our rook is aligned with the opposing king, and the only thing standing in the way is our own knight! We may look for a discovered check immediately and get really excited about the powerful-looking 1.Nxe6+.

This is a really tempting move and is worth considering, but we might fall victim to the following thought process: I go here, checking the king. The king moves somewhere, and now I capture the queen! 

Tunnel Vision Treatment: Check Your Assumptions

When we prepare to launch an attack against the opposing monarch, we always want to look for all of the ways the opponent can get out of check, including capturing the checking piece and blocking the check with another piece. Thinking about our dream of winning the queen after discovering the check against the king, let's turn the "king moves somewhere" into a concrete square. Where can it move to? 

The "king moves somewhere" square quickly turns into the "nowhere" square once we notice our own queen lurking in the corner! 

Tunnel Vision Treatment: Imagine the Puzzle Doesn't Want To Be Solved

Just like your opponent doesn't want to allow you to be showered with brilliant moves in Game Review after you deliver a stunning checkmate, the puzzle doesn't want to be solved. It wants to fight back! Before you play your first move, always consider what the puzzle might want to play on the next move by checking out your opponent's potential forcing moves: 

A quick material count reveals that we are down an exchange, meaning Black enjoys an extra major piece, a rook, compared to our extra minor piece. One of our minor pieces, the knight on g5, is in danger of being captured by a pawn on the next move. If we flip the script and give the opponent a move, then the most forcing resource is ...Qxg1+, simplifying the position to their benefit. Now that we know the puzzle is ready to fight back and will take our rook on g1 with the queen if allowed, let's consider our other options. 

Tunnel Vision Issue: Overlooking "Crouching Pieces" With Long-Distance Reach

Two candidates for the "Most Likely Piece to be Overlooked" award in this position include White's queen on a1 and Black's bishop on a7. These "crouching" pieces appear to be hiding in the corner, but their global vision stretches all the way across the board. Black's bishop supports the queen, x-raying our rook on g1. The long-distance queen is sending menacing glances across the long dark-squared diagonal, contemplating checks on g7 and h8.

Tunnel Vision Treatment: Forcing Moves Interview—Account For Every Piece

It's easy to overlook long-distance pieces that linger in the corner or other seemingly irrelevant areas on the 64 squares. Make it a point to account for every piece on the board, and see whether these pieces have any potential forcing moves (checks, captures, or threats). If we interview the bishop on a7 and check for potential forcing moves, we can see its x-ray potential against our rook on g1, setting the stage for a nasty threat. If we ask our queen on a1 about its forcing moves potential, it will have quite a bit to say! 

"Put me in coach, I'm ready to play!"

The queen has two forcing moves available, but they both look fairly silly on the surface, leading to one of the most serious decision-making barriers in chess: Absolute thinking. 

Absolute Thinking: Overcoming Negativity, Channelling Positive Potential

When we look at the queen's most forcing moves, attacking the king on g7 or h8, we might immediately "hand-wave" these options away, concluding, "I can't play that move, it just loses my queen." Perhaps we should, or we should not, but we certainly can sacrifice our queen on those squares. To decide if these seemingly silly-looking moves lead anywhere, see if one attacking move opens the door for new attacking moves. Let's start with the wild 1.Qg7+.

Sacrificing the queen on g7 forces the king to g7. Do we have any new attacking moves as a result? We can now play 2.Nxe6 double-check, but after the king crouches in the corner, do we have a convincing follow-up? There's no way to continue to attack the king safely, and we're simply running out of material. We could capture the queen, but we started the puzzle down material and already sacrificed our queen. It looks like we've hit a dead-end. Let's resurface and think about the other queen sacrifice, 1.Qh8+. 

By overcoming "I can't" and considering what new attacking moves are possible after unleashing a forcing move, we can see the king is forced to crawl into the corner, leaving the f7-pawn behind. Does this queen sacrifice in the corner allow a new attacking move? Once you open the doors of possibility by overcoming absolute thinking, you can now solve this tricky Daily Puzzle. 

Embracing A Growth Mindset

The Daily Puzzle creation and solving process can be an immensely rewarding journey, but it can also prove challenging and, at times, frustrating. Remember, as the Chess.com Daily Puzzle curator, I have all of the answers to the exam ahead of time, but I still find processing and explaining these puzzles challenging, with tremendous potential to grow as an instructor, fellow player, and puzzle solver. Let's embrace a growth mindset and walk through an example of our most difficult type of puzzle, the Sunday puzzle. 

This sizzling Sunday puzzle is the brainchild of the brilliant chess composer Henri Rinck. Well prepared with our "forcing moves first" approach, we may immediately stumble into a brick wall, which is not an uncommon Sunday puzzle-solving experience. There are no checks, and although we can capture a knight, the opponent is only two squares away from promoting.

There are no obvious threats besides the opponent threatening to promote a pawn in two more moves. It takes us three total moves to promote our pawn.  Thankfully, it's our turn to move, so the puzzle can promote first, and we can promote next—with a check! To quote GM Yasser Seirawan, when it comes to passed pawns, "Push 'em, baby!"

Following the wise words of Seirawan, we push our pawn toward a pawn touchdown. The opponent, however, has other plans and immediately throws a springer into the works with 1...Ne6!. This stubborn, practical defense can inspire us in our own difficult game—the Sunday puzzle is in no mood to be solved so easily with the promotion skewer concept. What now?

The knight is ready to cover the a8 promotion square, shattering our promotion dreams while our pieces are mere bystanders, helplessly watching the opponent's pawn promotion parade on h1. On the other hand, the knight relies on the c7-square to reach our dream promotion square on a8. How can we cover that square? It looks like our bishop can't do anything because there are only two possible defensive squares, and they are both protected by an opposing piece. 

The bishop can't move to these squares because the knight or the king will capture it. Let's overcome absolute thinking and check our assumptions. If the bishop moves to g3, then the king will capture the bishop without any clear follow-up. On the other hand, the knight is relying on moving to c7 to stop our pawn from promoting. It can't both capture our bishop and defend our pawn's promotion path. We can and certainly should flex our bishop's strength on the "impossible" d8-square! 

2.Bd8! opens the doors of possibility. Since the knight is unable to both capture our bishop and protect the promotion square by hopping to c7, the opponent continues by advancing their pawn. We push it to the limit, reaching the following moment in the puzzle:

We are ready to showcase our puzzle-solving brilliance if the opponent promotes the pawn, allowing us to promote our pawn into a queen, skewering the opponent's royalty. It looks like the puzzle is about to conclude favorably, but like any good horror movie monster, the puzzle continues to haunt us with an ingenious knight "jump scare." 

An ingenious jump scare? Isn't this just a typical "futile" Puzzle Rush defense, offering us a free piece? We happily collect the knight, and when the puzzle promotes, it's skewer time! 

Clearly, Henri Rinck didn't have access to the latest chess engines in the early 20th century when he composed this puzzle. The composer must clearly be wrong, right?

Before assuming the puzzle is wrong, let us first see if there is an opportunity for personal growth. Could we have overlooked something? After delivering this powerful-looking skewer, the king moves somewhere, and then we capture the queen. If the somewhere square is turned into the g4-square, we are in for a surprise. After capturing the queen, we reach the following stale position: 

Incredibly, we've stumbled into a stalemate! It's Black to move, but there isn't a legal move available. Since the king isn't in check, we are forced to split the point—the puzzle snatches a draw from the jaws of defeat! A stalemate box is definitely a concept to keep in mind as a resourceful defender and cautious attacker!

This is such a difficult point to spot in advance, but it is possible if we resurface and visualize the consequences of our forcing play. Now that we know this is an issue, how do we overcome the puzzle's final resistance?

Promoting the pawn into a queen led to a stalemate if we captured the queen. On the other hand, if we refuse to capture the queen, the resulting queen and bishop vs. queen endgame is a theoretical draw. Before we abandon our idea, perhaps there is another move to skewer the king and queen? By asking that question, you're ready to undermine the last defensive trick and solve this incredible Sunday Daily Puzzle.

This puzzle has already been attempted over 48,000 times, with a solving success rate of 0.1%! Although we all may face the challenge of feeling frustrated when we are unlikely to be part of this 0.1% solving club, 100% of puzzle solvers have a tremendous opportunity for reflection, growth, and improvement. 

Whether you are a new puzzle solver or you have solved your fair share of Sunday puzzles, you can reflect on your puzzle-solving journey and note what you did well, where you encountered resistance, and what you can do in the future to increase your chances of breaking through these barriers.

Perhaps you captured the knight on the first move, you didn't trust the "impossible" Bd8!, and/or you stumbled at the finish line by not visualizing the consequences of promoting to a queen against a stubborn defense. Practicing and reflecting upon our decision-making skills will make you a strong solver and player on and beyond the 64 squares. 

Every new Daily Puzzle is an opportunity to have fun and learn something new about the game. Although you may not solve every puzzle, you will never be alone. Our Chess.com analysis tools can help you better understand the details of your puzzle experience. We also have a team of master-level players and coaches ready to break down the puzzle solution in an explainer video. Our regular contributors include WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni, IM Kostya Kavutskiy, and yours truly, NM Dane Mattson. 

Here's to happy and rewarding Daily Puzzle solving! If you love to solve as well as create chess puzzles, we'd love to hear from you! It's always a pleasure to highlight a Chess.com member's Daily Puzzle creation, like this awesome community-created checkmate puzzle! If you have a puzzle you'd love to share with our community, feel free to send me a message, and we'll see if we can find a way to make your puzzle idea shine in a future Daily Puzzle.