What's New?

V1.5

Version 1.5

15/04/2024

  • > End Game Puzzles
    We've been working hard on bringing out more chess puzzling content over the last few months, perfecting the algorithm to generate more types of puzzles for you. We're proud to announce that end games are now here! Enjoy up to 3 per day, or unlimited puzzles with membership.
  • > Tactical Puzzles
    In addition to end games, we've added another puzzle mode, tactical puzzles! In these puzzles the goal is simply to pick the best set of moves, given the wacky position you're presented with. Similarly to end games it's 3 per day, or as many as you like with a membership.
  • > Membership
    You can now help support the project by subscribing for a membership! Members will have unfiltered access to all areas of the website including: Endgame Puzzles, Tactical Puzzles, Puzzle Filter and All Puzzles.
  • > All Puzzles
    Members can play all 3 chess puzzle modes (tactical, end game and regular checkmate puzzles) at once, providing a more diverse and fun experience!
  • > Historical Puzzles
    Each month we will now release a historical puzzle. This will consist of an interesting article about a chess game from history, an analysis of the game and a puzzle at the end. We hope this will bring an extra dimension to the website.
  • > Loading Time Optimisations
    Due to the increase in users over the past few months, puzzles had begun taking up to 5 seconds to load. We've improved efficiency in this area, reducing puzzle retrieval to less than 0.1 seconds.
  • > UI Update For Mobile
    We've listened to your feedback and moved the themes dropdown below the puzzle information on mobile, so it's possible to see what colour you are without scrolling.

Version 1.4

29/01/2024

  • > Puzzle Leagues
    A new way to solve chess puzzles. Puzzle leagues puts you in direct competition with other users to solve sets of puzzles each day, making the fewest mistakes in the fastest time! Each league has up to 10 players. The top 2 players in each league get promoted on Sunday midnight (00:00 UTC), whilst the bottom 4 risk demotion. The top player of the Masters league (league 1) is crowned Chess Puzzler Grand Champion each week!
  • > Puzzle League Browser
    You can use the Puzzle League Browser to see the standings of any league! Who will come out on top in the Masters league and be crowned Chess Puzzler Grand Champion this week?!
  • > Editing Your Profile
    Editing profile details has been improved. You can now easily add a profile picture from mobile devices, and there's an ability to link your Chess.com and Lichess profiles to your profile page.
  • > Puzzle Difficulty Optimisations
    Our algorithm ranks puzzles on percieved difficulty using an AI algorithm. We've now updated the algorithm to continue to assess and adjust puzzle difficulty as real users attempt the puzzles. This will result in chess puzzles being more accurately matched to your ability.
  • > Refresh Button
    As requested, a refresh button now appears below the board in the bottom right once a puzzle has been completed. Clicking the refresh button allows you to play the puzzle again.

Version 1.3

11/12/2023

  • > Custom Board Themes
    A menu for customising anything from the board colours to chess pieces, and even background effects, has been added to the left hand side of the chess board. There are currently 4 default themes, including a much requested dark mode. As well as this, each user can configure and save 5 custom themes. Now the puzzle solving experince can be fine tuned to your taste! We're really excited to see what people do with this.
  • > Christmas Pieces
    To celebrate the holidays we've added Christmas themed pieces to the website, hand drawn by our lovely Benedicte (you can contact her here for design work). Accompanying the beautiful pieces is a stunning snow effect, the Xmas Theme is available in the Theme Editor for those who want to get in the festive spirit!
  • > Arrows
    For those playing on desktop, you can now draw arrows on the board with right click. Simply click and hold right click, drag and then release right click to draw an arrow. To remove all arrows you can left click. Hint: if you draw an arrow in the horse movement shape it will result in an L shaped arrow!
  • > Square Highlighting
    Those on desktop can now highlight squares red by right clicking on them. This can be helpful to many for visualising the position. Right click on a square to highlight. Right click again to remove the highlight, or left click to completely reset the highlighted state of all squares on the board.
  • > Mobile Drag
    Mobile touch controls have been improved, with faster response times and an ability to drag pieces with touch.
  • > More Puzzles
    Since last update, more than 20,000 unique, never before seen puzzles have been generated by our AI. We now have well over 50,000 unique puzzles for players of all abilities, and that number is growing every day!

Version 1.2

20/11/2023

  • > Mini Chess Puzzles
    Mini chess puzzles are puzzles that can be played on smaller boards with less pieces and less space. This new game mode is super fun and a little faster to play than conventional puzzles!
  • > Puzzle Filter
    A new page has been added to allow filtering classic chess puzzles. Now users have much more power to help find that perfect puzzle.
  • > Daily Archive
    A new page has been added to allow filtering previous daily chess puzzles. Now you can go back and see if you've got what it takes to complete them all!
  • > Feedback
    We want to hear more from our users! The feedback page contains an easy form that can be filled in. Please let us know anything we can do to improve the website!
  • > UI Rework
    A bit of housekeeping and gradual UI improvement.
  • > Logo Update
    We now have an official logo, how exciting! We feel that the puzzle piece on top of the chess king represents our platform perfectly.

Version 1.1

02/10/2023

  • > Shatranj Chess Puzzles
    We modified our puzzle generation algorithm to create Shatranj puzzles! In future updates we will introduce even more chess variants to the website.
  • > Learn Shatranj
    A new page has been added to help those interested to learn the rules of Shatranj.
  • > Shatranj Leaderboards
    Shatranj rating has been added to the leaderboards page.
  • > Chess Board Annotation
    Upon request, we added annotation up the sides of the board so you can easily view which square is where.
  • > UI Rework
    Updated the home page and UI to make the website clearer and more accessible.
  • > Puzzle Sharing
    You can now share puzzles with your friends by clicking on the share button in the bottom left of the board.

Version 1.0

06/09/2023

  • > Unlimited Chess Puzzles
    Using a powerful evolutionary algorithm, we've generated hundreds of thousands of unique chess positions that anyone with access to the website can solve! Pairing this with a ranking system for users with accounts, you can play puzzles tailored to your ability, helping drive your growth in Chess.
  • > Daily Chess Puzzle
    Every day at 00:00 UTC a new puzzle, with interesting qualities, will be chosen for for the daily challenge. The user who solves it the fastest with the fewest mistakes will top the leaderboard.
  • > Puzzle Race
    A race against time to solve as many puzzles as possible! 3 strikes and you're out. The more you solve, the harder it gets!
  • > Spot the Difference
    Spot the Difference is a fun little game mode where you get a series of two puzzles displayed. As well as this, there is information as to how many moves force a checkmate and the direction of the checkmate. Choosing the position that satisfies the criteria gives you a point! Choosing the wrong answer ends the game. Can you set the record number of correct decisions in 1 minute?
  • > Leaderboards
    The leaderboards page displays information about the top performing users. Some, such as classic puzzles, are ranked by rating over time. However others, such as the daily leaderboard, reset every night. Can you scale the leaderboard and reach the top?
  • > User Profiles
    The account system allows users to create an account, log in and save information. This means that you will be given a rating for each game mode, as well as high scores. You can manage your profile, setting custom profile pictures and a bio. From the settings menu you can change account settings such as passwords or usernames. All accounts require a valid email you can verify.