Rush for Your Life
Streak of Puzzles
Puzzle rush is a popular feature on chess.com, where players can try to solve progressively harder puzzles for as long as they can until they get three wrong. My favorite puzzle rush is survival because I get to take my time and see how far I can go (I also mouse slip way too many times on the 3 minute rushes). Recently, I was able to reach a new goal of 50 solved puzzles. It took me 32 minutes to go through the rush. Do you think you can solve all the puzzles in 32 minutes? Remember, you are allowed to get 3 strikes.
1.
Rating: 193
This is a fairly straightforward puzzle. The queen delivers checkmate on the backrank with a mate in 1.
2.
Rating: 248
Another easy back rank mate.
3.
Rating: 268
Here's another example of hanging a mate in 1.
4.
Rating: 323
A little more difficult, but no matter how many pieces white can use to block, the black queen will deliver back rank mate.
5.
Rating: 358
A simple fork of the king and queen with the knight. A good tactic to have in tricking your opponent to lose their queen.
6.
Rating: 416
White leaves a mate in one hanging with the black queen being able to deliver mate with the support of the knight.
7.
Rating: 498
Another classic example of a mate in one pattern, where the king is blocked off by its own pieces, allowing the queen to deliver mate with support from the knight.
8.
Rating: 534
This puzzle isn't quite as direct. It involves attacking the king and pushing it into the backrank. This is done through checking the king first by the queen, which puts the queen into position to deliver backrank mate. Notice that the king can't go to the second rank because it is covered by the f3 pawn.
9.
Rating: 591
This puzzle requires infiltration into the black position. It is good to look at where your pieces can converge and attack weak pawns. These are generally pawns unprotected or are guarded by only a king.
10.
Rating: 646
The h2 square would be a nice square to attack, but it is guarded by white's knight. So, if you sacrifice your rook for the knight, there is no defender of h2, leaving your queen able to deliver a checkmate.
11.
Rating: 683
This is a fairly simple puzzle that attacks the enemy king with an unstoppable mate on the next turn. It is generally a good idea to continue attacking a vulnerable king that is in the corner of the board.
12.
Rating: 718
This tests your knowledge of a common tactic, where a bishop on the long diagonal can attack the b2 or g2 square and the rook is stuck in the corner of the board, allowing it to be captured on the next turn.
13.
Rating: 766
Don't be intimidated by a piece attacking your queen. Find the counter-attack!
14.
Rating: 828
A bit of a longer puzzle, but it involves coordinated attacks on the king to bring it out of the safety of its corner. The key is to bring in the bishop to cut off a diagonal, which allows the queen to clear the second rank and deliver mate.
15.
Rating: 891
Here's an easy mate in one for the player that has made it so far.
16.
Rating: 945
Here's a bit of a harder one that requires a knight sacrifice to deliver mate. You begin with the knight sack that forks the king and queen but is captured by the h pawn. However, notice that the king can't escape to g1 since its covered by the queen. This means that a rook down the now open h file will be a mate.
17.
Rating: 961
This is a common checkmate pattern, where the queen and rook line up and the queen checks the king on the second rank to push it back, so that the king doesn't cover the checkmate square, where the queen sacrifices herself for the rook to deliver a back rank mate.
18.
Rating: 1030
You've made it to the four digits! The first puzzle of the 1000 rating is a discovered double check, which is a checkmate, as no piece can capture or block both the knight's and queen's check.
19.
Rating: 1083
The black king is cutting off the white king from escaping to the second rank, so white tries to block backrank mate with his knight. But the rook can simply pin the knight to the king to capture and deliver mate on the next turn as white's rook is to slow to defend.
20.
Rating: 1126
This is some simple endgame principles. White moves his king to actively protect the passed pawn so that black's king can't capture if white blocks black's checks with its rook. This side step by the king guarantees a promotion or having his rook against a pawn.
21.
Rating: 1166
This puzzle requires you to use your rooks and bishops in a coordinated fashion in order to push your opponent's king onto the backrank to be ladder mated.
22.
Rating: 1226
As we pass the 1200 puzzles, we are starting to move away from the beginner puzzles. This next puzzle introduces a good checkmating pattern, where the queen blocks off most of the kings squares except for a single diagonal, which the bishop comes in to deliver checkmate.
23.
Rating: 1295
This is a more complex checkmate to find. You have to first lure the king onto the open file by sacking your pawn. This allows your rook to begin infiltration and hunting down the king that has been lured to an open file. Your bishop also is able to join with momentum and deliver a mate.
24.
Rating: 1305
This puzzle tests your knowledge of keeping the opposition in endgames. It is important in king and pawn endgames to keep opposition by staying one square in front of the enemy king, where it is your opponent's turn to break opposition. This prevents your opponent from making any progress.
25.
Rating: 1353
Here's a neat little checkmate. The queen pushes the king out of the corner into the center of the board, where black's bishop and knight are able to cut off the king's escape, allowing the queen to deliver checkmate.
26.
Rating: 1421
In this puzzle, you may be down material, but your pawn is about to promote. In order to prevent your opponent's bishop from taking control of the promotion square, you have to keep your king in the center to protect the only square that the bishop can use to take control of the long diagonal.
27.
Rating: 1500
Another helpful tactic for delivering a checkmate is to use the knight to drive off the enemy king from protecting the piece that is blocking your queen from delivering a back rank mate. This allows the queen to capture the piece that was blocking your check, ending the game.
28.
Rating: 1508
This is the first puzzle that focuses on defense. White goes in for consecutive checks with the queen and bishop looking for a potential mate. However, black has a defensive resource of blocking white's queen with the rook and using the queen to shield any progress that white hopes to make.
29.
Rating: 1574
A handy tactic to win material. It might look like black's bishop is well defended, but white's knight is able to reveal a fork on that square, which allows white to capture the bishop and fork black's king and queen to get a material advantage.
30.
Rating: 1645
This puzzle involves attacking the enemy king and forcing it towards the enemy position. The queen is able to rotate with momentum towards the king, as well as have potential threats on the white king with rook lifts.
31.
Rating: 1691
Now, this puzzle was actually my first mistake. I missed the mate in one that was in the puzzle and I had just taken the free knight with my queen. I almost rage quit when I saw the red X, but I decided to just keep chugging along.
32.
Rating: 1715
So in this puzzle, there is a potential for a fork by pushing the pawn forward. However, you take the bishop first, so that the queen is in place of the bishop, allowing for a higher trade to occur, as the queen can't trade itself, whereas the bishop can trade itself for some material.
33.
Rating: 1793
This puzzle is a classic example of removing the defender of a key square. If the knight can get to f3, this would be able to threaten a checkmate or win a queen, so you sacrifice your other knight with check and a threat of a fork of the king and queen in order to rid the defender of f3 and play Nf3.
34.
Rating: 1800
Another puzzle that involves queen infiltration and hunting down the enemy king. Notice how the king is pushed towards black's pieces, as this naturally causes white's king to begin running out of squares, making mate much easier.
35.
Rating: 1874
This puzzle pushes the king into the corner of the board, where there is an open file for the rook to deliver a mate. Notice that the pieces are coordinated to restrict the king's movement with the bishop blocking off any movement and the knight supporting the rook.
36.
Rating: 1946
In this puzzle, you might be tempted to take the free knight with the bishop, but this just leaves your bishop pinned to your queen. So you have to be able to take with the queen and be ready to trade you bishop for knight to get a worse pawn structure but be up a full piece.
37.
Rating: 1984
In this puzzle, it might be tempting to give a check with your rook. But white still has an escape square, so you have to move your king to block off white's escape. White can sack their rook, but your king still covers the square and white is left with no way to prevent mate.
38.
Rating: 2014
Congrats! You've made it past the 2000 mark. Now this puzzle, I had to think for a while. I initially was thinking of a way to use my bishop to pin the queen to the king with prep moves such as a5. But I realized this was to slow, and I came with moving the rook, attacking the queen and potentially winning the bishop, and if the queen tried to hang on to the bishop with moves such as Qd2, I could bring in my bishop and cause problems.
39.
Rating: 2092
This puzzle requires your rook to infiltrate. But it is important to note that the light squared bishop has to check first so that the king has to be covered by the rook. If the move order is switched just a little bit, the king is able to move up the board and threaten the dark squared bishop. Just goes to show how important move order can be.
40.
Rating: 2136
This puzzle requires some thought as to how to advance your pawns. You have to make sure that your rook is able to escort the pawn all the way down the file. So when the opponent forces a bishop trade, you can't keep pushing a single pawn as the opponent has placed a rook behind it. The solution is to overload the enemy's defense with a second passed pawn, which the rook will be able to protect from the king. The result is inevitable promotion.
41.
Rating: 2161
In this puzzle, the move is so subtle that it doesn't seem like much. But by bringing forward the king, the pawn is supported to deliver a potential fork of the king and knight. As the enemy king sidesteps, the pawn advances, dislocating the knight and leaving the other knight hanging.
42.
Rating: 2217
This was another tricky puzzle that took me a longer time. I initially was looking for ways to attack the queen. And the main way I found was bringing in the knight. But i kept seeing that the queen had some squares by going to the kingside. That's when I found to give a check first with the bishop, cutting off the queen's path of escape, allowing Nc5 to trap the queen. White tried one last trick by sacking the knight because taking with the e pawn allows the queen to escape by capturing my knight on f5 but taking with the c pawn is the right way to go.
43.
Rating: 2264
Here, your queen comes under attack, but you can counter with danger levels. Bringing in the knight protects your queen as well as attacks the enemy queen. When you capture the queen, your opponent can capture the queen, but he is using a rook, resulting in a trade of a knight for a rook.
44.
Rating: 2300
In this puzzle, you are able to get a free piece. It may look like black could potentially capture your rook in the corner, but you can block this attack with your queen after giving a check. Black is able to prevent you from castling, but as long as your king continues defending the knight, you should have a comfortably winning position.
45.
Rating: 2356
This is a simpler tactic, where the queen gives a check, laserbeaming the rook behind the king. White tries to block with their queen, but when the queen trade takes place, white removes their defender of the rook, allowing black to pick up the hanging rook.
46.
Rating: 2447
In this puzzle, white is threatening a mate. The only move that prevents this is checking the enemy king with your rook, which kicks the king back and allows you to push your pawn forward towards the promotion square.
47.
Rating: 2460
This puzzle requires some calculations. The knight is forking your king and bishop. However, if you have your king take opposition, it won't matter if you lose your bishop, because your pawn is able to win the race, as the opponent's king will have to move if it wants to avoid being mated.
48.
Rating: 2511
This would be the second puzzle that I get wrong. I would look at sacrificing my bishop and playing Qh5 to prepare Nf3. The problem with this is that the king doesn't have to take the bishop and it is difficult for a concrete attack to take place. Rather, playing Qh5 first is more forcing as it keeps the pressure and reveals two threats that white can't defend against.
49.
Rating: 2559
At this point, I was getting nervous because i was so close to 50, but I only had one strike remaining. I saw in this puzzle that it required how realizing that white doesn't actually have an attack because the queen doesn't have a point of access. This means that black can bring in their rook and potentially queen to attack the enemy king.
50.
Rating: 2606
This puzzle saw that the enemy king was being attacked by three heavy pieces. The thing to finally tip the scale was a pawn being pushed forward. It takes advantage of the fact that the f pawn is pinned, allowing your e pawn to push towards promotion. At the end, black's rook protecting the second rank has to move, resulting in massive infiltration.
51.
Rating: 2679
Now this puzzle took me the longest time. I was trying all sorts of combinations with taking the knight or bishop. I ultimately tried to find a way to get the queen off from the defense of the knight. I thought of sacking my bishop on c5, but I would just play c5, despite the en passent. I traded to get a rook in the place of the queen, allowing me to kick it off the defense of the knight, as the rook is unable to protect the knight from a different square as a queen would have.
52.
Rating: 2710
This is it. This is the final puzzle to get 50 correct puzzles in the rush. I found taking on the rook first to prevent any weaknesses and taking the free knight. But then came the tough decision of what to do after the enemy gave a check with the rook. I debated between moving my king and blocking with the knight. I couldn't find much of a difference between the two. But one is winning and the other is a blunder. I didn't like how the queen would be pinning my knight with a potential pawn storm if I moved my king, which is why I choose to block.
In the end, I was able to reach the good 50 on the rush! But what are your thoughts on this puzzle rush? How far did you get? Let me know!
Bonus Puzzle
