Expert Puzzles

Master-rated tactics without a board

Puzzles rated 2200 and up, combinations of three to five moves or more, and still only 4 to 10 pieces on the board. These are hard for titled players with a board in front of them. Solving them blindfold is a different order of difficulty, and it is worth being honest that a slow correct answer here is a genuine result. Speed is not the metric at this tier.

What changes at master level is that pattern recognition stops being enough. Most puzzles below 2000 are a known motif in a new costume, and you solve them by recognising the shape. Above 2200 the solution usually depends on a specific detail of this exact position, which means you have to calculate concretely rather than reach for a pattern. Blindfold, that means holding several candidate lines and their resulting positions at once, which is the hardest thing this site asks of you. Two practical notes: expect to spend minutes rather than seconds per puzzle, and rebuild the position from scratch whenever you feel it slipping instead of pushing on with a picture you no longer trust. If these are out of reach, spend time at advanced first, or strengthen the underlying board picture with expert position memory. The wider method is in the blindfold chess guide.