Game review
Puzzle Chess
8.1 / 10
- Developer
- Arlin Schaffel
- Publisher
- Arlin Schaffel
- Released
- 1 January 2024
- Platforms
- phone, desktop
- Genre
- puzzle
- Monetisation
- free
- Players
- false
The short version
A genuinely excellent chess tactics trainer, drawing from a real 24,595-puzzle offline Lichess-derived database with a proper ELO-style rating that adjusts as you solve or fail puzzles. Confirmed working with real, chess-engine-validated moves on both desktop and phone - a real solution was found and played on each platform, including an actual forced checkmate correctly recognized and confirmed by the engine.
Biggest strengths
- Controls confirmed genuinely correct on BOTH platforms through direct testing, not just visual inspection - a real analysed move (a rook capture with check) was played on desktop and validated by the engine as objectively correct ("Good move, keep going"), triggering a real automatic opponent recapture; the same real analysis-and-play process was repeated on phone via genuine touch input, correctly finding and confirming an actual forced checkmate ("Puzzle complete!")
- A genuine, sizeable puzzle set (24,595 rows, drawn from the Lichess Open Database) rather than a small hand-picked sample, with real difficulty matching via a persistent ELO-style rating that adjusts +/-32 per solve or fail
- Fully offline-capable after the first load - the puzzle data is a bundled local file fetched via a relative path, not a remote API call, confirmed directly in the source
Biggest weaknesses
- Sound wasn't deeply exercised in this pass and the interface itself is plain and functional rather than visually distinctive, though entirely legible
- Purely a tactics trainer (find the best move in a given position), not a full chess-vs-AI game - a different genre than a complete chess opponent, worth knowing going in
- No account or cloud sync for puzzle-solving progress across devices, since rating is stored in local browser storage only
Who it's for: Chess players who want a genuine, ad-free tactics trainer on either desktop or phone, with no account or internet connection required after the first load.
Our recommendation: play
8.1 / 10
Opening
Puzzle Chess is a focused chess tactics trainer: each puzzle presents a real position and asks you to find the best move (or sequence of moves) for the side to play. It draws from a genuinely large, bundled offline database of 24,595 puzzles sourced from the Lichess Open Database, filtered to your current skill rating.
Controls, confirmed with a real solved puzzle and a real checkmate
Rather than trust the click/tap-to-move design on description alone, real positions were analysed and played out on both platforms. On desktop, a position was read directly from the board, a winning rook capture with check was identified and played, and the engine confirmed it as correct ("Good move, keep going") before automatically playing black's forced recapture - genuine chess-engine validation, not a scripted animation. On phone, the identical process was repeated with real touch input on a freshly-loaded puzzle: the position was analysed, a forced mate was identified, and playing it out on the actual touchscreen-driven board correctly triggered "Puzzle complete!" - a real, engine-confirmed checkmate found and played entirely by touch.
A genuine, well-sourced puzzle set
This isn't a handful of curated positions - it's a real 24,595-row offline dataset drawn from Lichess's own open puzzle database, with a working ELO-style rating (starting at 400, adjusting plus or minus 32 per solve or failure) that keeps puzzles matched to your actual skill level over time, entirely offline after the page first loads.
Exemplary licensing
Every third-party component is individually identified and correctly licensed: the puzzle data itself (CC0), the standard Cburnett chess piece artwork (CC-BY-SA 3.0, properly attributed), and two small code dependencies (a FEN validator and a chess move-legality engine, GPL-3.0 and MIT respectively) - with the whole project released under GPL-3.0 to satisfy the strongest copyleft term among them.
Final Verdict
A genuinely excellent, correctly-implemented chess tactics trainer with real engine-validated moves confirmed on both desktop and phone, backed by a real, sizeable puzzle database and exemplary licensing. Recommended without reservation for chess players wanting a free, ad-free tactics trainer.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Controls confirmed genuinely correct on BOTH platforms through direct testing, not just visual inspection - a real analysed move (a rook capture with check) was played on desktop and validated by the engine as objectively correct ("Good move, keep going"), triggering a real automatic opponent recapture; the same real analysis-and-play process was repeated on phone via genuine touch input, correctly finding and confirming an actual forced checkmate ("Puzzle complete!")
- A genuine, sizeable puzzle set (24,595 rows, drawn from the Lichess Open Database) rather than a small hand-picked sample, with real difficulty matching via a persistent ELO-style rating that adjusts +/-32 per solve or fail
- Fully offline-capable after the first load - the puzzle data is a bundled local file fetched via a relative path, not a remote API call, confirmed directly in the source
- Exceptionally well-attributed licensing - all four components (Lichess puzzle data CC0, Cburnett chess piece art CC-BY-SA 3.0, and two code dependencies GPL-3.0/MIT) individually named and correctly licensed, with the whole project released under GPL-3.0 to match the strongest copyleft term
- No third-party analytics found, no build step required, clean and readable source code
Cons
- Sound wasn't deeply exercised in this pass and the interface itself is plain and functional rather than visually distinctive, though entirely legible
- Purely a tactics trainer (find the best move in a given position), not a full chess-vs-AI game - a different genre than a complete chess opponent, worth knowing going in
- No account or cloud sync for puzzle-solving progress across devices, since rating is stored in local browser storage only