???Does it make sense to reach 600 in puzzle rush

!!??On the puzzle rush leaderboard, there are some people who have reached over 300
??Does anyone really believe they didn't use cheats

Unfortunately there is no real way of knowing, but unless someone has a title I usually doubt the legitimacy of the scores in the leaderboard

JosephReidNZ has a 1234 streak at survival puzzle rush with no cheats, there is a video about it on his bio.

Here is the puzzle rush:

https://www.chess.com/puzzles/rush/JosephReidNZ/4qyMRQ

So I don't think he cheated, I don't know about the rest though.

This video proves absolutely nothing.

Of course there is no definite prove but I have 0 reason to believe that he has multiple scores of over 1000 without cheating, with the next best player (whether legit or not) only having about 300.
Also no GM has a score of over 122 which is the lowest score in the top 50.

Doesn't make sense to me.

I'm a 29-year-old person with Cerebral Palsy. I'm in a power chair most of the day and can't do much other than be on my special Eye-Gaze computer. I'm usually on this site for over 8+ hours a day. I have done puzzles for a long time, and I tend not to play any Bullet, Blitz or Rapid games because (frankly) I get very much bored with standard chess! The utterly ridiculous thing is at this level there are not as many puzzles in the 'puzzle pool' so they repeat (for me at least), hence why I can achieve these score(s).

Yes, Chess.com knows about me.

Any other useless question, eee6068?

The average times are way too low to be believable. I believe that there aren't that many high level puzzles, but at least you need to get through the first 100-200 puzzles of a rush, where there are hundreds of thousands with new ones coming out every day, and these get tough quick. Chess.com leaderboards aren't the most important thing in the world, but I would urge you to think about what gain there is to destroy these leaderboards and waste tons of your own free time with your cheating. I am sorry for your condition, but there is still tons of meaningful stuff you could do, if you so choose

Hey @VictoriaPars, I get where you're coming from, but I can assure you I'm not cheating. I've spent a lot of time-solving puzzles, and after the 120-ish mark, they actually start to repeat quite a bit. That makes it easier to go faster since I've seen many of them before.

I get that my times might seem unbelievable, but it's just a result of lots (and lots) of practice. I enjoy pushing myself in Puzzle Rush Survival, and I genuinely love the challenge.

I know leaderboards aren't the most important thing in the world, but for me, it's just a fun competition. No harm done! Hope you have a great day. 😊♟️

No probably

Well you still only have 3 lives in puzzle rush survival, so unless you genuinely remember every single top puzzle you still have to be solving extremely hard puzzles consistently in order to not lose which seems pretty difficult for a 2000 rated player along with the fact that there's absolutely nothing stopping you from just whipping out stockfish and taking a look at the answer for a puzzle you haven't seen before. I don't 100% think you are cheating but it feels like there are some things that are unclear along with the fact that no matter what people say at the end of the day they can still be cheating when there is no way to check. Just wondering, what percent of the puzzles in your puzzle rushes have you seen before and what do you do when you come across a puzzle that you haven't seen before or don't remember the answer to (are you very strong at puzzles and can solve it anyways or do you spend hours calculating everything to make sure you don't fail or what). Might make some things more clear

I agree I think everyone in the top 3 is cheating.

Hey @Honchkrowabcd, I get why my scores might seem hard to believe, and I appreciate you keeping an open mind about it. To clarify a few things:

In Puzzle Rush Survival, the hardest part for me is usually around the 50–90 (sometimes 100) range because the puzzle pool is much larger there. But after that, the puzzles start repeating a lot more, and I’ve seen about 95% of them before during my runs. That familiarity makes it possible to go through them quickly.

Also, I spend a lot more time on Chess.com than the average player. Since I’m in my power chair for 10+ hours a day, I’m on Chess.com for at least 7+ of those hours, just grinding puzzles. I don’t have to take breaks for things like meals or other daily tasks, so I naturally get way more practice than most people.

On top of that, my support staff sees what I do, and one of them has even emailed the Chess.com CEO to vouch for my puzzle-solving skills. So while I get that some people might be skeptical, I’m really just putting in the time and effort.

Hope that clears things up! Let me know if you have any other questions. 😊♟️

Thanks for taking the time to clear up some things. Just wondering though, how are you able to solve the 5% of puzzles you don't know though? Do you spend like hours calculating every single possibility, or are you really good at puzzles, or what

No worries! Glad I could help clear things up. As for the 5% of puzzles I don’t instantly recognize, it’s a mix of things. I use the ‘Custom Puzzles’ feature a lot, training with different rating ranges—like 3800 to 4000—then switching to another range to keep things fresh. That helps me get a feel for patterns at every level.

For the ones I truly don’t know, I rely on my intuition, calculation, and experience. I don’t go through every single possibility, but I can usually narrow things down quickly based on common themes in high-level puzzles. It’s like my brain has seen so many positions that even if I haven’t seen this exact one before, I can often figure it out based on similar ideas.

So it’s a mix of recognition, training, and problem-solving on the fly!

What we do know though is that he artificially boosted all of his ratings until chess.com came in and reset them. (This can be easily verified by checking his rated games in blitz/Bullet/rapid/daily which are literally all fake games against banned accounts). We also know he has been banned at least once on a past account and possibly multiple times. He also cheats on the forums by getting chatgpt to write all his posts, including every post in this thread.

So yes, we have no proof that he cheats in puzzle rush, but I think it's fair to assume that someone who is a known cheater in every other facet of the website is also cheating when they put up world records in puzzle rush. Particularly when they have given zero evidence of chess or tactics ability elsewhere (he was rated 700 blitz on his old account across thousands of games, and I've yet to see proof of him solving regular timed puzzle rush up to even puzzle 25 or 30)

Damn that's pretty sad then :/

I want to clear up a few things.

First, I acknowledge some discrepancies with my regular chess ratings, but that’s all in the past. I’m not sure how that’s relevant to this discussion, as my focus has always been on puzzles. I’ve used Chess.com’s built-in training tools—especially the Custom Puzzles feature—to improve, which is how I’ve developed my ability to recognize and solve high-level puzzles quickly.

As for forum posts, I write my responses. I sometimes use ChatGPT to refine wording, but that’s no different from using a spell checker or grammar tool—it doesn’t change the facts I’m sharing.

Lastly, would someone be this proud of their successes in the puzzle-solving world if they had cheated? That wouldn’t make much sense. I’ve put in years of training and effort, and I share my results because I genuinely enjoy puzzles and problem-solving.

I’d rather have a constructive discussion than go in circles with accusations. If there’s something specific you’d like to understand better, I’m happy to clarify.