Chess Tactics Trainer: 250 Interactive Puzzles
Practise real tactical ideas at your own pace. Play through 250 chess puzzles across five difficulty levels, from straightforward combinations to advanced calculation. All exercises are free and playable directly in your browser.
How to train chess tactics
Choose a level and look for checks, captures, threats, forks, pins, sacrifices and surprising forcing moves. Select a piece and then its destination to play your move. Where a course continuation has several moves, the trainer plays the recorded reply so you can find the next move.
Need help? Use the three-stage hints: the first preserves the instructor's original clue, the second points to the piece to move, and the third reveals the recorded move. After solving, use the replay controls to study the combination.
What these tactics puzzles teach
- Beginner and developing: recognise immediate threats, forks, pins and checkmating patterns.
- Intermediate: connect forcing moves, sacrifices and tactical motifs.
- Advanced and expert: calculate longer sequences and less obvious tactical resources.
Important: Each puzzle follows a recorded continuation from the source PGN. A different legal move may also be good or winning, but this trainer checks the original teaching line rather than proving that it is the only best move. Some complex PGN variations and long games are represented by shorter legal extracts.
More free chess training
Explore Chess Gym for visualisation and blunder-prevention drills, try the Checkmate Trainer for focused mating combinations, or learn classic technique with the Capablanca Endgame Trainer.
Put your tactical skills into practice
Try your combinations in relaxed daily chess against people from around the world. Make moves when convenient, with time to think through your plans.
Go deeper with The Complete Guide to Chess Tactics
Enjoying these free exercises? Learn the ideas behind winning combinations with Tryfon Gavriel's The Complete Guide to Chess Tactics, a comprehensive video course covering chess tactics, calculation and pattern recognition.
The course includes 13 sections, 276 lectures and 21 hours 30 minutes of instruction.
Chess tactics trainer FAQs
Is this chess tactics trainer free?
Yes. All 250 chess tactics positions are free to practise in your browser, without signing in.
How many difficulty levels are there?
There are five selectable course levels: 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, with 50 exercises at each level. You can also mix the full collection.
Does every puzzle end in checkmate?
No. The collection covers tactical themes, material gains, mating attacks and some practical endgame combinations.
What if my move is also a winning move?
The trainer checks the recorded source line, not every winning continuation. Other correct or strong chess moves can exist, so a rejected move does not necessarily mean it is bad chess.