Here’s the not-so-secret secret of getting good at chess: puzzles. Almost every strong player you’ve ever heard of got there partly by solving thousands of little “find the best move” positions until spotting the winning shot became reflex. The good news? It’s genuinely fun — puzzles are chess with the boring bits cut out. No slow opening, no long grind. Just a position that’s screaming for a clever move, and you get to find it.
This is your home base for all of it. Every puzzle below is a real position from the Lichess open database, sorted so you can train exactly what you want — a specific tactic, a checkmate pattern, or a set matched to your rating. Pick a door and start solving.
New here? Start with these
- Warm up: Today’s Daily Puzzle · Puzzles for Beginners · Puzzles for Kids
- Learn one tactic: Fork · Pin · Mate in One
- Match your level: 1000-rated set · 1200
Try today’s puzzle right now
No sign-up, no setup — here’s today’s featured puzzle. Find the move, drag the piece, see if you nailed it. Come back tomorrow and there’s a fresh one waiting.
Your move — solve the position
Real positions from real games. Solve one, and the next appears.
Take that instinct to a live board — 3D chess with character skins & rewards.
Liked that? Below is the whole library. Everything’s free and everything’s interactive.
Puzzles by tactic
Want to drill one specific idea until you can spot it in your sleep? Each set is loaded with positions built around a single motif. Not sure what the motif is? Every page links across to the matching tactics concept lesson so you can learn the pattern, then hammer it home.
Fork · Pin · Skewer · Discovered Attack · Double Attack · Sacrifice · Deflection · Decoy · Zwischenzug · X-Ray · Windmill
If you’re brand new, forks and pins are the two to start with — they show up constantly and they’re the easiest wins to learn.
Puzzles by checkmate
Nothing feels better than ending the game. These sets are all about delivering mate — from the one-mover you should never miss to the deeper combinations that take real calculation.
Mate in One · Mate in Two · Mate in Three · Mate in Four · Back-Rank Mate · Smothered Mate
Start with Mate in One to train your eye, then climb the ladder. The back-rank and smothered mate sets teach two patterns that win games at every level.
Puzzles by rating
Puzzles that are too easy don’t teach you anything, and ones that are way too hard just make you feel bad. So we’ve sorted a big chunk of them by difficulty rating — pick the one closest to your current level and you’ll be right in the sweet spot where learning actually happens.
600 · 800 · 1000 · 1200 · 1500 · 1800 · 2000
Not sure where you land? Start a little lower than you’d guess — solving smoothly builds pattern recognition faster than grinding away at stuff that’s over your head. Each rating page also links to the matching improvement plan for that band.
Puzzles for everyone
Some sets are built around who you are or how much time you’ve got:
Daily Puzzle · For Beginners · For Kids · Hard
The Daily Puzzle is the perfect low-commitment habit — one puzzle a day. For Beginners and For Kids keep things gentle and encouraging, while Hard is where you go when you want your brain to sweat.
Why puzzles make you better
It’s not magic — there’s a real reason coaches push tactics training so hard:
- Chess is mostly pattern recognition. Strong players don’t calculate every game from scratch; they recognize shapes they’ve seen a thousand times. Puzzles are how you build that library. The more forks you’ve spotted, the faster you’ll see the next one in a real game.
- They punish blunders — the #1 thing holding you back. Below about 1500, most games are decided by someone hanging a piece or missing a free one. Puzzle training sharpens exactly the reflex that catches those moments. (More on that in how to stop blundering.)
- They’re calculation practice with a safety net. Every puzzle asks you to look ahead and find the forcing line. Do that daily and your calculation muscle grows without the stress of a real clock ticking.
- They’re satisfying. This matters more than people admit. Puzzles give you a little hit of “I found it!” that keeps you coming back — and consistency beats intensity every time.
The trick is to make it a habit rather than a one-time cram. Even a handful a day adds up fast — here’s our take on how many puzzles you should do per day.
Frequently asked questions
Are these chess puzzles free? Yep — every set on this page is completely free to solve, right in your browser, no account needed. The positions come from the Lichess open database, which is released under CC0 (basically, free for anyone to use).
Which puzzles should I start with? If you’re new, start with Puzzles for Beginners or the Mate in One set, then move to Fork and Pin. If you already play, pick the rating set closest to your level.
How many puzzles a day should I do? Consistency beats volume. Even 5–10 a day, done regularly, will noticeably sharpen your tactics over a few weeks. We break it down in how many puzzles per day.
Do puzzles actually raise my rating? For most players below expert level, yes — a big chunk of your rating comes down to spotting tactics and not hanging pieces, and that’s precisely what puzzles train. Pair them with real games and game analysis for the fastest gains.
What’s the “rating” on a puzzle? It’s a difficulty score — roughly the level at which players start solving it reliably. Match it to your own rating (or go a touch lower) to train in the sweet spot.
Keep going
Puzzles are the engine, but they run best alongside a little study. Learn the ideas behind the patterns in our tactics library, tighten up your endgames, and follow a proper improvement plan to turn all this solving into rating points.
Easiest next step: solve today’s Daily Puzzle — then make it a habit.
Built and curated by the Chess Lab Academy Editorial Team · Puzzles from the Lichess open database (CC0) · Last verified 2026-07-13 · How we verify content.