Spot the mate. Beat the clock.
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Spot the mate. Beat the clock.
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Chess Puzzle Blitz is a free chess puzzle game that runs in your browser. Every round puts a real position on the board where one side can force checkmate. You find the mating move and play it before the clock runs out. The goal is in the name: spot the mate, beat the clock.
Start with forcing moves: checks, captures and threats to mate. In a timed puzzle the answer is almost always the most forcing line. Before you commit, count the escape squares around the defending king. A mate that leaves one square free is not a mate.
Checkmate patterns repeat. The back rank mate, the smothered mate and the queen and bishop battery all turn up again and again, so each puzzle you solve makes the next one a little faster to read. Short timed rounds are a good way to build that habit, and you can stop after one run or keep going to improve your best.
Check whose turn it is before anything else. Then scan for the enemy king and count the squares around it. Squares blocked by its own pieces are walls, and a king behind its own pawns is the classic target for a rook or queen check along the back row. If a check does not give mate, look at whether it forces a reply that helps the next move.
Yes. It is free to play and nothing needs installing.
Checkmate puzzles. Each one has a position where the side to move can force mate.
Yes. The daily chess puzzle is one mate-in-one a day with no rush, and practice mode has no clock and no leaderboard.
More to play: every free game on the site, the daily chess puzzle, Gam3r 3072, Morning Mysteries, the daily dungeon and party games for a group.
A chess position set up with a task, such as finding the checkmate in one move, taken from a real or composed game. More in the glossary
A check the king cannot escape by moving, blocking or capturing. The game ends and the side that gave it wins. More in the glossary
A move that attacks the enemy king, so the other side must deal with it right away. More in the glossary
A chess puzzle where a single move delivers checkmate. More in the glossary
A checkmate on the first or eighth row, where a rook or queen checks a king boxed in by its own pawns. More in the glossary
A checkmate by a knight against a king trapped by its own pieces. More in the glossary
Chess played against a short clock, so you have to find moves fast. More in the glossary