The Chess Puzzle of the Day: how it works and how to score

Every day Brethreign brings you a new chess puzzle from Lichess, the free and open chess site. You play it on a board right inside Brethreign, and solving it earns points for the weekly leaderboard. It takes a few minutes and is a good habit to keep. Here’s how it works.

Find today’s puzzle

Open the Games page at /games and tap Chess Puzzle of the Day, or go straight to /games/chess. The daily puzzle sits at the top of the page.

Read the top of the puzzle first

Before you move a piece, read the lines above the board:

• Whose move it is. For example, “Daily puzzle · White to move”. You always play the side that’s moving.
• The rating. How hard the puzzle is, using Lichess’s rating scale.
• The themes. Clues such as “Fork”, “Pin” or “Mate In2”. If it says Mate In2, you’re looking for checkmate in two moves.
• The points. A badge on the right shows how many points you’ll earn if you solve it.

How many points

Harder puzzles are worth more:

Puzzle rating	Points if solved
Under 1500	1
1500 to 1999	2
2000 to 2499	3
2500 and above	5

You can claim points from the daily puzzle once a day. After that you can keep playing, but the points are already in.

Playing the puzzle

1. Find the best move. Drag or tap a piece to move it.
2. The other side replies. If your move is right, the board plays the opponent’s answer and it’s your turn again.
3. Keep going until the line is finished. When the last move is played, the puzzle is solved and your points are added. You’ll see a message such as “+2 points added”.

If a move isn’t the best one, the board tells you and you can try again.

Hints, Restart and Show solution

Three buttons sit under the board:

• 💡 Hint points you in the right direction.
• ↺ Restart puts the pieces back to the start of the puzzle.
• ▶ Show solution plays the answer for you. You won’t earn points for that puzzle once you’ve seen it, but you will see the idea, and that’s how chess players improve.

After the daily puzzle

Solved it, or want more? Scroll down to the Chess Ladder, a climb of ten puzzles that get harder as you go. The ladder doesn’t add points, so you can practise as much as you like. We explain it fully in Climb the Chess Ladder.

Why chess on a faith app

Chess teaches patience, thinking before acting, and looking at things from the other side of the board. Those are good habits for any of us. And a daily puzzle is a gentle reason to come back to Brethreign, where a prayer request or a friend’s breath may be waiting too.

“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” (Proverbs 27:17)

Keep going

• Climb the Chess Ladder
• Scores, streaks and the leaderboard
• Games on Brethreign