completely new puzzles!!

Would it be possible for you to add new puzzles based entirely on games played on chess.com?

I see two major problems with the current puzzles. First, many puzzles have suboptimal solutions and do not come from a game I can peruse and analyze. Second, the puzzle themes are very limited and do not cover a wide variety of tactical motifs. The puzzle theme list is also rather short relative to what can be played on real games.

Asking chess.com to do what The french website does. tsk tsk tsk.

asking chess.com to be good lol

I'm curious, which motifs are missing?

theres no opening puzzles, theres no midgame puzzles, theres no position based puzzles, it is entirely capturing pieces or checkmate.

Those are not 'motifs'. What motifs are missing?

the middle game and positioning literally are motifs of chess but aight.

Motifs in chess would be recurring tactical themes like forks, overloading, luring the defender, etc. Or Positional themes would be things like domination, passed pawns, avoiding a trade, backward pawns, Good/Bad Bishops, etc.

Perhaps @Charliedatil can elaborate on what is missing.

Most puzzles in the database come from games played on site. There used to be data in the PGN with the links to those games but I believe those no longer are available.

Insights has a feature showing tactics from games. Both missed and found

Just use lichess bro

re: @cornfed and for those who asked details and clarifications

below is the most comprehensive list of themes/motifs that i've compiled from different sites (contains positional, tactical, and mate motifs) plus combination of motifs listed at the end
hope the lists provide convincing evidence that the themes available on chess.com are rather limited

something i've experienced is that intermediate and advanced puzzles on chess.com focus on trades, exchanges, and combinations (which are very interesting but they are not carefully and meticulously classified either).

Positional Motifs

Avoid Trade, Backwards Pawn, Bad Bishop, Bishop Pair, Center Control, Centralised King, Closed File, Connected Pawns, Connected Rooks, Defence, Diagonal Battery, Diagonal Control, Domination, Doubled Pawns, Doubled Rooks, Favourable Trade, File Control, Good Bishop, Improve Piece Activity, Initiative, Isolated Pawn, King March, King Safety, Knight Outpost, Limit Piece Activity, Luft, Minority Attack, Open File, Opening Centre, Opposite Colour Bishops, Opposite Side Castling, Outside Passed Pawn, Overprotection, Passed Pawn, Pawn Blockade, Pawn Break, Pawn Grab, Pawn Majority, Pawn Phalanx, Pawn Storm, Penetration, Piece Centralisation, Piece Coordination, Positional Sacrifice (Exchange), Positional Sacrifice (Pawn), Positional Sacrifice (Piece), Positional Sacrifice (Queen), Positional Sacrifice (Rook), Prophylaxis, Protected Passed Pawn, Queen+Knight Coordination, Rank Control, Rook Lift, Rook On 7th Rank, Same Colour Bishops, Semi-Open File, Space, Vertical Battery, Alekhine's Gun

Tactical Motifs

Advanced Pawn, Aiming Sequence, Appended Attack, Attraction, Avoiding Mate, Avoiding Perpetual, Avoiding Stalemate, Backwards Move, Blocking, Capturing Attacker, Capturing Defender, Clearance, Coercion, Controlling Escape Square, Counter Check, Counting, Defensive Interposition, Defensive Move, Demolition Sacrifice, Desperado, Diagonal Clearance, Discovery, Discovered Attack, Discovered Check, Discovered Defense, Discoverer Checks, Distraction, Double Attack, Double Check, En Passant, Exchange Sacrifice, Exposed King, Family Fork, File Clearance, Fork, Gain of Tempo, Greek Gift, Hanging Piece, Hit and Run, Hit and Run - Capture Defender, Hit and Run - Discovery, Hook and Ladder, Interference, Jailbreak, Long Lateral Move, Luring the Defender, Mate Pin, Mate Threat, Multi-square Counting, Non-Promotion Advanced Pawn, Overloading, Passive Sacrifice, Pawn Sacrifice, Pendulum, Pin (Absolute), Pin (Relative), Promotion, Promotion Threat, Quiet Move, Rank Clearance, Recapture, Reload, Removing the Guard, Reprotection, Rethreaten, Royal Fork, Sacrifice, Achieving Perpetual, Simplification, Skewer (King), Skewer (Queen), Skewer (Relative), Skewer (Rook), Square Clearance, Tactical Castling, Tag Team, Trapped Piece, Under-protected Piece, Underpromotion, Underpromotion Threat, Unpinning, Unsound Sacrifice, Weak Back Rank, Win the Exchange, Windmill - Discoveries, Windmill - Knight Fork, X-Ray Attack, X-Ray Defense, Zugzwang

Mate Types

Anastasia's Mate, Arabian Mate, Back Rank Mate, Balestra Mate, Blackburne's Mate, Boden's Mate, Counter Check Checkmate, Damiano's Bishop Mate, Damiano's Mate, Discovered Mate, Double Bishop Mate, Double Checkmate, Dovetail Mate, Dovetail Mate - Bishop, Edge Mate, Edge Pin Mate, Epaulette Mate, Escalator Mate, Greco's Mate, Hook Mate, Kill Box Mate, Lawnmower Mate, Lolli's Mate, Monorail Mate, Morphy's Mate, Opera Mate, Pawn Checkmates, Pawn Mate, Pillsbury's Mate, Promotion Mate, Queen and Knight Mate, Queen Cutoff Mate, Railroad Mate, Seizing a Square Mate, Side File Mate, Smothered Mate, Suffocation Mate, Swallow's Tail Mate, Threading the Needle Mate, Triangle Mate, Vukovic Mate, Walking the Plank Mate, X-Ray Mate

Compound Motifs (Requiring Two Motifs at Once)

Clearance for checkmate, Clearance for fork, Clearance for pin, Clearance for promotion, Clearance for skewer, Clearance for trapping piece, Decoy into checkmate, Decoy into discovered attack, Decoy into fork, Decoy into pin, Decoy into skewer, Deflection into check, Deflection into checkmate, Deflection into fork, Deflection into promotion, Deflection into skewer, Open line for checkmate, Open line for checkmate attack, Open line for fork, Open line for fork attack, Trade and discovered attack, Trade and fork, Trade and pin, Trade and skewer

So, are you saying the puzzles on chess.com do not already tackle 'some' of these and which is missing? That's my question.

Maybe you are saying they are not broken down into easy to see 'Fork' or 'Deflection' categories or something?

@cornfed hey, i would love to list all what is missing but such list is very long. Please have a look at the themes available in the custom puzzles menu (on chess.com) and you'll see that it is a super short list.

Just give one or two motif's which are missing, that's all I'm asking.

I'm thinking they are likely to all be there...perhaps not broken down meta level. Example: All the 'Deflections' might just say 'Deflection' instead of Deflection (into mate) or Deflection (into skewer)...or the other 4 or 5 'into's' in such a list as yours.

The majority of themes were originally crowd sourced and there are plans to automatically re-theme them. That said, the way puzzles work here, where they have to be single solution, is likely going to limit themes to ones that have straightforward solutions and concrete positions. They'll also need to be directly relevant to the solution, and that won't usually be positional types of motifs. For example, to pick a specific one from the list, central control; that doesn't fit how puzzle work here, at least in most cases.

Look, I get your point about broad categories of motifs being included in chess.com, but how would you feel about a puzzle site that is missing for example Attraction or Blocking? Missing such basic stuff is shocking! Also, all different checkmating patterns are pretty basic, and relevant for beginners and they are perhaps (perhaps not?) included in the chess.com mate categories? After all, we don't know exactly what is and is not included in these broad chess.com themes but such categories are rather simplistic and let's say OK for beginners but lacking for intermediate and advanced players.

The complete list of what is missing is below.

Next you'll find all chess.com motifs/themes (a short and strange list, don't you agree?):
Advanced Checkmates, Alekhine's Gun, Attacking Castled King, Back Rank, Basic Checkmates, Battery, Bishop Pair, Clearance Sacrifice, Decoy / Deflection, Defense, Desperado, Discovered Attack, Discovered Check, Double Check, Doubled Rook, En passant, Endgame Tactics, Exchange Sacrifice, Fastest Checkmate, Fianchetto, Fork / Double Attack, Hanging Piece, Interference, Knight Outpost, Mate in 1, Mate in 2, Mate in 3+, Mating Net, Opposite Colored Bishops, Opposition, Overloading, Passed Pawns, Pawn Endgame, Perpetual Check, Pin, Promotion, Queen Sacrifice, Remove the Defender, Rook Endgame, Rooks on Seventh, Sacrifice, Scholar's Mate, Simple, Simplification, Skewer, Smothered Mate, Stalemate, Trapped Piece, Two Bishops Checkmate, Two Rooks Checkmate, Underpromotion, Vulnerable King, Windmill, X-Ray Attack, Zugzwang, Zwischenzug.
-------->>

Positional Motifs (Missing):

Avoid Trade, Backwards Pawn, Bad Bishop, Center Control, Centralised King, Closed File, Connected Pawns, Connected Rooks, Defence, Diagonal Battery, Diagonal Control, Domination, Doubled Pawns, Favourable Trade, File Control, Good Bishop, Improve Piece Activity, Initiative, Isolated Pawn, King March, King Safety, Limit Piece Activity, Luft, Minority Attack, Open File, Opening Centre, Outside Passed Pawn, Overprotection, Pawn Blockade, Pawn Break, Pawn Grab, Pawn Majority, Pawn Phalanx, Pawn Storm, Penetration, Piece Centralisation, Piece Coordination, Positional Sacrifice (Exchange), Positional Sacrifice (Pawn), Positional Sacrifice (Piece), Positional Sacrifice (Queen), Positional Sacrifice (Rook), Prophylaxis, Protected Passed Pawn, Queen+Knight Coordination, Rank Control, Rook Lift, Same Colour Bishops, Semi-Open File, Space, Vertical Battery

Tactical Motifs (Missing):

Advanced Pawn, Aiming Sequence, Appended Attack, Attraction, Avoiding Mate, Avoiding Perpetual, Avoiding Stalemate, Backwards Move, Blocking, Capturing Attacker, Capturing Defender, Clearance, Coercion, Controlling Escape Square, Counter Check, Counting, Defensive Interposition, Defensive Move, Demolition Sacrifice, Diagonal Clearance, Discovery, Discovered Defense, Discoverer Checks, Distraction, Exposed King, Family Fork, File Clearance, Gain of Tempo, Greek Gift, Hit and Run, Hit and Run - Capture Defender, Hit and Run - Discovery, Hook and Ladder, Jailbreak, Long Lateral Move, Luring the Defender, Mate Pin, Mate Threat, Multi-square Counting, Non-Promotion Advanced Pawn, Passive Sacrifice, Pawn Sacrifice, Pendulum, Pin (Absolute), Pin (Relative), Promotion Threat, Quiet Move, Rank Clearance, Recapture, Reload, Removing the Guard, Reprotection, Rethreaten, Royal Fork, Achieving Perpetual, Skewer (King), Skewer (Queen), Skewer (Relative), Skewer (Rook), Square Clearance, Tactical Castling, Tag Team, Under-protected Piece, Underpromotion Threat, Unpinning, Unsound Sacrifice, Weak Back Rank, Win the Exchange, Windmill - Discoveries, Windmill - Knight Fork, X-Ray Defense

Mate Types (Missing):

Anastasia's Mate, Arabian Mate, Balestra Mate, Blackburne's Mate, Boden's Mate, Counter Check Checkmate, Damiano's Bishop Mate, Damiano's Mate, Discovered Mate, Double Bishop Mate, Double Checkmate, Dovetail Mate, Dovetail Mate - Bishop, Edge Mate, Edge Pin Mate, Epaulette Mate, Escalator Mate, Greco's Mate, Hook Mate, Kill Box Mate, Lawnmower Mate, Lolli's Mate, Monorail Mate, Morphy's Mate, Opera Mate, Pawn Checkmates, Pawn Mate, Pillsbury's Mate, Promotion Mate, Queen and Knight Mate, Queen Cutoff Mate, Railroad Mate, Seizing a Square Mate, Side File Mate, Suffocation Mate, Swallow's Tail Mate, Threading the Needle Mate, Triangle Mate, Vukovic Mate, Walking the Plank Mate, X-Ray Mate

From Compound Motifs (Missing):

Attack blocker of promotion, Attack defender, Attacking pinned piece, Bishop fork, Bishop sacrifice, Capture defender, Clearance for checkmate, Clearance for fork, Clearance for pin, Clearance for promotion, Clearance for skewer, Clearance for trapping piece, Decoy into checkmate, Decoy into discovered attack, Decoy into fork, Decoy into pin, Decoy into skewer, Deflection into check, Deflection into checkmate, Deflection into fork, Deflection into promotion, Deflection into skewer, Knight fork, Knight sacrifice, Open line for checkmate, Open line for checkmate attack, Open line for fork, Open line for fork attack, Pawn fork, Queen fork, Rook fork, Rook sacrifice, Trade and discovered attack, Trade and fork, Trade and pin, Trade and skewer, Use the pin

Total Missing Motifs: 161

• Positional: 51 missing
• Tactical: 67 missing
• Mate Types: 43 missing
• Compound/Specific: 37 missing (includes some overlaps with above categories)

If you have a point, you are certainly overstating it when it comes to tactical combinations. The two motifs you give are good examples:

'Attraction' and Decoy or Deflection are the very same thing. It depends on what you want to call it.
Similarly, 'Blocking' is also known as interposing/interception and even interference.

If you check out the Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations you will see this.

Volume does not equate to quality.

This is not only about volume. It is also about precision. Clear, precise, and carefully defined themes and motifs in chess puzzles help sharpen tactical awareness and improve recognition of a wide variety of tactical patterns during training. Current chess.com puzzles lack this precision and hence also the variety. At least two other major platforms do this better.

I already provided valuable feedback, also provided evidence on how to improve the puzzles in chess.com and all its missing themes. I'm not here to endlessly debate or convince someone about the merits or issues of the current puzzle system.

I've solved more than 10 thousand puzzles in the last two years, I've tried many different puzzle platforms, thus I kind of know what's missing here. Cheers!