Black to play and mate in one.
Your opponent moves…
Every day
The daily puzzle
The same puzzle for everyone, new every day. Easy on Monday, a real brainteaser on the weekend.
Against the clock
Puzzle Sprint
Three minutes, three lives. The puzzles get harder as you go.
At your level
Puzzle training
Puzzles that get harder when you solve them and easier when you miss. See which themes you're strongest at, and get another go at the ones you missed.
No clock
Puzzle Ladder
Every puzzle you solve is a step up, and the next one is harder. How high can you climb before you miss?
Against the house
Puzzle Duel
You and one of the house players: the same puzzles, three minutes. Who solves the most?
Puzzles by theme
Every theme has its own page, with a short explanation of the motif and puzzles at three levels of difficulty.
Mate in one
One move, and the game is over.
Mate in two
A setup move, then mate.
Mate in three
See further than the board shows.
Fork
One piece attacks two at once.
Pin
The piece can't move without exposing something bigger.
Skewer
The valuable piece moves, the one behind falls.
Discovered attack
One piece moves, another attacks.
Double check
Two checks at once. The king has to move.
Sacrifice
Give material away, get more back.
Deflection
Force the defender away.
Attraction
Lure the piece to where it stands badly.
Hanging piece
A piece is left undefended. Take it.
In-between move
Don't recapture right away. Do something better first.
Back-rank mate
Trapped behind its own pawns.
Smothered mate
The knight against a king with no air.
Promotion
The humble pawn can become a queen.
Endgame
When the board thins out, every tempo counts.
Rook endgames
The most common endgames of all.
Pawn endgames
Only kings and pawns. Every tempo counts.
Zugzwang
Every move makes it worse.
How the puzzles work
Your opponent makes the first move, and then it's your turn. The board turns so that you always play from the bottom. Find the right move and the reply comes on its own, until the puzzle is solved. If you get stuck, ask for a hint, which shows the piece to move, or watch the whole solution.
In puzzles that end in mate, any move that mates counts, even if it isn't the move in the solution. Mate is mate. Afterward you can open the position on the analysis board and see what the computer thinks.
Where do the puzzles come from?
Every puzzle on LaviChess comes from Lichess, the free chess site, which shares its puzzles with the whole world. Each puzzle is a position from a real game, where a computer found a winning continuation. We know how hard a puzzle is from everyone who has already tried it.
From 6,157,341 puzzles, fetched on October 2, 2026, we picked 4,190: ones that have been played at least 500 times, where at least nine out of ten votes are thumbs up, and whose difficulty is well established. At most one puzzle per game, so you never meet the same game twice. Every puzzle has also been checked here: the position is legal, every move of the solution is allowed, and every mate really is mate.
Chess puzzles or chess problems?
Many people call any chess exercise a chess problem. Among chess players, though, a problem usually means something more specific: a composed position, built by a problem composer around a single solution, often with a surprising first move. It is an art form of its own, with its own competitions and its own masters.
The puzzles here are something else: tactics from real games. Someone sat there and had the chance. The question is whether you see what they saw, or what they missed.
Updated November 6, 2026