Overview
Lichess Puzzles is a comprehensive tactical training system featuring millions of chess puzzles generated from real games. Each puzzle represents a critical moment where one side can achieve a significant advantage or deliver checkmate.All puzzles come from actual Lichess games, ensuring realistic tactical scenarios you’ll encounter in your own play.
How Puzzles Work
Initial Position
Each puzzle starts with an opponent’s move already played. You need to find the best continuation.
Find the Best Move
Calculate the best move or sequence. You may need to find multiple moves in a row.
Puzzle Features
Puzzle Rating System
Every puzzle has its own rating calculated using the Glicko-2 system:- Puzzles start with an estimated rating based on the game they came from
- Rating adjusts based on player success/failure rates
- Your puzzle rating is separate from your game rating
- Solve harder puzzles to increase your puzzle rating faster
Your Puzzle Rating
You have a personal puzzle rating that:- Starts around 1500 for new accounts
- Increases when you solve puzzles (especially higher-rated ones)
- Decreases when you fail puzzles
- Helps match you with appropriately difficult puzzles
Puzzle ratings are deliberately separate from playing ratings since tactical ability and overall chess strength are different skills.
Puzzle Themes
Lichess categorizes puzzles into 100+ tactical themes, allowing focused training:Tactical Motifs
Mating Patterns
Mating Patterns
- Back Rank Mate - Checkmate on the opponent’s back rank
- Smothered Mate - Knight delivers mate to a king blocked by its own pieces
- Anastasia’s Mate - Knight and rook coordinate for mate
- Arabian Mate - Knight and rook deliver mate in the corner
- Opera Mate - Rook and bishop deliver mate along diagonal
- Mate in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - Forced checkmates in N moves
Tactical Devices
Tactical Devices
- Fork - One piece attacks multiple targets
- Pin - Piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable piece
- Skewer - Reverse pin forcing a valuable piece to move
- Discovered Attack - Moving one piece reveals attack from another
- Deflection - Force a piece away from defending something
- Attraction - Force a piece to a bad square
- Clearance - Clear a square or line for another piece
Advanced Tactics
Advanced Tactics
- Sacrifice - Give up material for positional/tactical advantage
- Zwischenzug (Intermezzo) - In-between move that changes evaluation
- Interference - Block a line between two opponent pieces
- Quiet Move - Strong move without checks or captures
- Defensive Move - Find the only defense
Game Phase
Game Phase
- Opening - Tactics in the opening phase
- Middlegame - Most common puzzle category
- Endgame - Endgame tactics and technique
- Rook Endgame, Queen Endgame, etc. - Specific endgame types
Material Outcome
Material Outcome
- Advantage - Gain a significant advantage
- Crushing - Achieve an overwhelming position
- Equality - Find the equalizing move
- Promotion - Advance a pawn to promotion
Special Categories
- Master - Puzzles from master-level games (2300+ rating)
- Master vs Master - Both players were masters
- Super GM - From games between elite grandmasters
- Long - Complex puzzles requiring multiple moves
- Short - Quick tactical strikes (1-2 moves)
- One Move - Single-move puzzles
Puzzle Modes
Puzzle Dashboard
Access your personalized puzzle dashboard to:- View your puzzle rating and performance history
- See your accuracy by theme
- Track puzzles solved per theme
- Identify your tactical strengths and weaknesses
- Choose specific themes for targeted practice
Puzzle Streak
How many puzzles can you solve in a row?- Solve consecutive puzzles without mistakes
- Builds from easier to harder puzzles
- Global leaderboard tracks the longest streaks
- Different from rated puzzles - purely for fun and challenge
Puzzle Storm
Speed-solving mode:- Solve as many puzzles as possible in 3 minutes
- Start with easy puzzles, difficulty increases
- Score based on number solved
- Leaderboards for daily, weekly, and all-time
Puzzle Racer
Race against opponents:- Competitive puzzle solving
- First to complete 20 puzzles wins
- Real-time racing against other players
- Requires both speed and accuracy
Opening-Based Puzzles
Train tactics in specific openings:- Filter puzzles by opening family or specific variation
- Examples: Sicilian Defense, Italian Game, Queen’s Gambit
- Helps you learn typical tactics in your opening repertoire
- Combines opening knowledge with tactical awareness
Opening-based training is especially useful for understanding typical tactical patterns in positions you regularly reach.
Daily Puzzle
Featured on the homepage:- New puzzle every day at midnight UTC
- Usually a particularly elegant or instructive position
- Viewable by everyone (logged in or not)
- Great for casual daily practice
Puzzle Sessions
Standard Training
Default puzzle experience:- Puzzles matched to your rating
- Rating adjusts based on performance
- Immediate feedback on each move
- Can retry failed puzzles
- Complete solution shown after solving or giving up
Angle Training
Choose your focus:By Theme
Select from 100+ tactical themes
By Opening
Practice tactics from specific openings
By Difficulty
Choose easier or harder than your current rating
Mix
Random puzzles at your level
Puzzle Interface
Controls
- Move the pieces - Drag and drop or click-click to submit moves
- Hint - Get a subtle hint without seeing the full solution
- Give Up - Reveal the solution (counts as a failed attempt)
- Continue - After solving, move to the next puzzle
- Retry - Attempt the puzzle again from the start
Feedback
- Correct move - Green checkmark, puzzle continues
- Wrong move - Red X, can retry or see solution
- Alternative move - “Good but not best” for valid alternatives
- Puzzle complete - Rating change displayed
Information Displayed
- Puzzle rating and your rating
- Number of plays this puzzle has received
- Themes associated with the puzzle
- Source game (link to the original game)
- Vote buttons to rate puzzle quality
Puzzle History
Review your past puzzle attempts:- Browse all solved and attempted puzzles
- Filter by outcome (solved/failed)
- Re-attempt puzzles you previously failed
- Track your improvement over time
- Export puzzle data for analysis
Puzzle Quality
Voting System
Help improve puzzle quality:- Vote thumbs up for good puzzles
- Vote thumbs down for unclear or incorrect puzzles
- Community voting helps filter high-quality puzzles
- Poorly-rated puzzles appear less frequently
Puzzle Generation
Puzzles are automatically generated:- Server analyzes completed games with Stockfish
- Identifies positions where one move is significantly better
- Verifies the solution is forced or clearly best
- Tags puzzles with appropriate themes
- Assigns initial rating based on game strength and difficulty
New puzzles are constantly added as games are played and analyzed on Lichess.
Anonymous Puzzle Play
Even without an account:- Solve unlimited puzzles
- No rating tracking (puzzles are randomly selected)
- Progress not saved between sessions
- Create an account to track improvement
Puzzle Tips
Look for Checks
Start by examining all forcing moves: checks, captures, and threats
Calculate Fully
Work out the full sequence before moving
Consider Defense
Think about the opponent’s best defensive tries
Train Weak Themes
Focus on themes where your accuracy is lowest
Related Features
Analysis
Analyze games with Stockfish to find tactical mistakes
Studies
Create tactical exercises in studies
Games
Apply tactical skills in real games
Tournaments
Test your tactics under time pressure