Is this a new feature on the website or the app version?
New "puzzle difficulty" feature
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I mainly use the app and I don't see this new option... :(
It looks like currently you can only change the difficulty on the website. Not sure if your app puzzles will adjust to accord with the website, though.
Jul 13, 2025
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#6
I'm curious about puzzle difficulty too. When I got past about 2300 rating recently the puzzles got suddenly very easy. Probably average about 1200. Maybe a little less. I haven't been given a 2000+ puzzle in a few days now. My rating is up past 3000 but I know I'm not really that good! I've just been eating the easier puzzles for lunch. I'm using the app, btw. Maybe my settings on the website are wrong?
Jul 15, 2025
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#7
Since chess.com doesn't send out updates we will probably just have to figure out what is going on anecdotally. I have noticed that on "normal" difficult the puzzles are all incredibly easy. I was hard stuck around 2300-2400 prior to the change and now easily made it past 2500 in just a few casual puzzle sessions. I am going to move the difficulty up to "high" and see if that increases the average ELO of the puzzles because similar to praestant, I have noticed that almost all of the puzzles I get now are in the 1100-1700 range even though my puzzle rating is around 2400.
I've noticed this new feature but I would like to understand it more:
What exactly is this feature doing?
I assume clicking "hard" and "very hard" will give you harder puzzles, but how much harder?
Is there some set range they work with?
Also, how do you prevent this feature from further inflating puzzle ratings? It seems like one more feature people can exploit to get absurdly high ratings.