How I got 50+ on Chess.com's Puzzle Rush

ThePawnSlayer

Updated: Dec 22, 2023, 5:04 AM | 12

I'll admit it... I love puzzle rush! In this video I tried to push my puzzle rush survival streak above 50:

Ever since listening to James Canty III on the "Perpetual Chess Podcast" I really wanted to try and get 50+ on Chess.com's Puzzle Rush Survival feature. Normally on puzzle rush, you need to solve as many tactics puzzles in a short period of time (3-5 minutes). However, with the survival feature, you have unlimited amount of time to solve the puzzles. This makes it an excellent form of chess training as you get mix of easy tactics puzzles at the start of the session to practice your pattern recognition. After your have solved a number of puzzles, you then face harder puzzles that require a lot of calculation and visualization to solve.

How to do I solve chess puzzles

All puzzles can be solved by following this systematic thinking process:

Checks, captures threats (CCT)

CCT is a way to solve all puzzles by analyzing your most forcing moves.

Checks - Checks are the most forcing of moves; they require your opponent to protect their king in some way through avoidance, blocking or capturing (ABC). As a result, there are a limited amount of possible responses that your opponent can possibly make. When solving puzzles, they should always be the first moves that your calculate and analyse.

Captures - Captures are another form of forcing move. Assuming you are in an equal position, if you take a piece like a bishop, in order for your opponent to be level in material they must recapture with one of their pieces. These are also forcing moves; unless your opponent wants to be down a piece for the rest of the game, he must arrange some form of recapture:

It should be noted however that whilst captures are strong, checks are stronger because your opponent, in order to not break the rules of check, must react to that first before anything else:

In this puzzle, there is a great temptation to capture the bishop. However, this will allow some counterplay from black potentially. Instead a check must be used. See if you can solve it and let me know in the comments.

Threats are the final step of our systematic calculation thought process. They are moves that threaten things: checkmates, capturing pieces etc. Whilst they are less forcing then checks and captures and thusly should be calculated last, they are equally devastating in their impact:

The struggle before the climb

Through my commutes to work (approx. 20 minutes on the bus...) I have attempted to try and get to 50+ on a puzzle rush streak. As you can see, throughout the months of November and December I had come very close:

However, I would always end up being impulsive leading to me getting a puzzle wrong ending my streak prematurely. For me to be successful, I needed to calculate all possible moves before making any rash decisions in my moves.

The Climb: Puzzles 1-20 - An early scare

Whilst puzzles 1-20 should not cause too many issues for seasoned solvers, admittedly I had some tricky puzzles to solve at the beginning that did not seem to have an obvious solution such as a checkmate:

Puzzle 1 was hard!

A cute puzzle

Puzzles 21-40 - Into the groove.

Things truly start to get hard when you break the 20 puzzle barrier. Now the solutions are tricky and calculation is required.

Sometimes luck can come your way during your streak... Remember don't overthink it

The puzzle to break into 40+. Remember don't overthink it...

40+ Entering the Puzzle Wilderness

Much like Samwise Gamgee's comment when leaving the shire, I was on the verge of being the furthest I had ever been in my puzzle rush streak... However, the puzzles were becoming exponentially harder. Tricky motifs and sacrifices were needed to be found in order to keep my streak alive!

The incredible 50 puzzle! A tricky King and Pawn ending:

After breaking the 50+ barrier I was proud of myself to finally have reached my goal. I pressed on further but eventually I was defeated by a puzzle rated 3000!:

Good luck with this one!

I hope you enjoyed this blog. Let me know in the comments if you liked the video and some of the puzzles featured in this blog. Happy solving!

How I got 50+ on Chess.com's Puzzle Rush

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