Guide

Welcome to chessepolis

chessepolis is the tactics portal of the chess family: puzzles from real games, each checked by Stockfish.

• Every puzzle comes from a game of the collections of chesstoteles – from master games of chess history and from today's tournaments.
• In every puzzle one move is clearly the best. You find it and play on until the mate or until the win stands on the board.
• No account, no sign-up: whatever you keep stays in your browser only.

Solving a puzzle

Above the board stands the task, for example "White mates in two".

• Drag a piece with the mouse or your finger – or tap the piece first and then the target square.
• Mostly the board first plays the opponent's move that led to the puzzle – beside the board it stands as "Last move". Then it is your turn; the opponent replies by itself.
• Hint marks the piece that moves; a second click shows the target square. Show solution plays the solution for you.
• A wrong move counts as a miss, and you simply try again. Beside the board stand your misses and hints.
• If several moves mate just as fast, each of them is right. Without mate a move at most 0.3 pawns weaker counts too – the board then names the better one.
• Once solved, the motifs stand below the board, with the answer to "Why is this a puzzle?" and a link to the whole game on chesstoteles.

Puzzles →

The buttons of the board

Every puzzle has the same buttons, on every page of chessepolis.

• Arrows at the bottom right: to the previous or the next puzzle. On a phone a swipe to the side does it too.
• Star: keep the puzzle as a favourite. Your favourites are in the settings.
• QR code and Share: take the puzzle to your phone, pass it on or copy it as FEN or PGN. Every puzzle has a fixed ID.
• Printer: the puzzle on paper – with the board, lines for your solution and the QR code.
• Video: the puzzles play their solutions by themselves, one after the other – to watch.
• Focus or the key F: only the board in the whole window, Esc ends it. There is no focus on a phone.

Motifs and levels

The puzzles are sorted by their motif and by how hard they are.

• Twelve motifs, from fork and pin to mate in 1 and mate in 2–3. Each has a page of its own with a short explanation and its puzzles.
• Five levels, from I · Pupil to V · Shah. The level depends on what there is to find in the solution: quiet moves, sacrifices, moves you only see when you calculate deeply.
• A program recognises the motifs by rules of thumb – so a motif may be missing or not quite fit.

Motifs → Levels →

The treasury

Most mates follow a handful of patterns – the treasury collects them.

• Every mating pattern has a page of its own: its basic form and puzzles that end with it.
• Once you have seen the patterns, you recognise them in every game – often moves before the mate.

Treasury →

The wizard

This page is dedicated to Mikhail Tal, world champion in 1960, famous for his daring sacrifices.

• His sacrifices from tournament and match games, each with the verdict of Stockfish – from the sound sacrifice to the bluff that won anyway.
• Move the mouse over Tal's move to see how the game went on.
• With his life in a few paragraphs and the main numbers.

The Magician →

Apadana – the great players

As the Apadana of Persepolis showed the peoples of the empire, this page shows the great players of chess history.

• The world champions, the greats before 1950 and the players rated 2700 and more – each with puzzles from their own games.
• In these puzzles the player of the page is always to move: you find the move played – or missed – in the game.

Apadana →

Collections

Puzzles that share more than a motif: how the game ended, who played it, what made it famous.

• Punish the blunder: the opponent has just made a serious mistake – you find the refutation. The missed chance: the winning move the game overlooked.
• Masterpieces: famous combinations of chess history. Déjà vu: positions that came up in several games.
• The last blow, The quiet win, Time instead of material and Short games are to watch: the board plays the moves for you.
• And The quiet move and the Endgames among the puzzles.

Collections →

Training

Under Training in the menu you find what helps you practise with a plan.

• Puzzle of the day: on the big board of the home page a new puzzle waits every day, the same for every visitor. You catch up on missed days in the calendar.
• Review: a puzzle where you made a wrong move, took a hint or looked at the solution comes back after 1, 3, 7 and 21 days – until it sticks. Below the puzzle of the day you see how many are due today.
• My strength: per motif and level, how many puzzles you solved at the first try – the weakest first, each with the way to its puzzles.
• Chapar: the sprint against the clock, three or five minutes – three wrong moves end the ride. Blind solving: the pieces vanish after a few seconds, and you find the moves on the empty board.
• Training sheet: put puzzles together and pass them on as a link or QR code, for example to your club. Whoever opens it solves them one after the other.
• What you solve is kept by your browser alone, as "My training". In the settings you see how much it is, back it up in a file or clear it.

Training →

ECO and openings

Every game begins with an opening – the puzzles can be found by it too.

• ECO: the puzzles by the code of their game in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, from A00 to E99, in five volumes.
• Openings: the same puzzles by the name of the opening, in each volume those with the most puzzles first.

ECO → Openings →

The worksheet

At the top right of the pages with puzzles stands the button Worksheet.

• Each click puts together new puzzles of the page at random: 10, 20, 30 or 40, ten to a page.
• If you like, with a page of solutions at the end.
• As a PDF: choose "Save as PDF" in the print window of the browser.

Puzzles →

Analysis board and your own game

Under Analysis there is a free board on which Stockfish thinks along – on a computer and a tablet.

• Enter a game move by move or paste it as PGN. Another move where the game goes on becomes a variation; nothing is overwritten.
• Set up a position: put pieces on the board, choose who is to move and the castling rights.
• Puzzles from your own game: paste a game and Stockfish searches it in your browser for positions in which one move is clearly the best. Nothing leaves your computer.

Analysis → Puzzles from your own game →

Search and statistics

The magnifier at the top of every page finds puzzles, players, openings and motifs.

• Type an ID, a FEN, a player, an opening or a motif – the results appear as you type.
• Statistics: all the numbers of the puzzles – by motifs, levels, mating patterns, players, openings and decades. A click on a bar leads to its puzzles.

Statistics →

Settings

The cog at the top right leads to the settings.

• Appearance: three designs – Limestone (light), Lapis night (dark), Black and white –, the language and how fast the board plays moves.
• Back up and take along: save your favourites, your stars and "My training" as a file and load them in another browser.
• Stockfish: the small version that loads fast, or the large one that calculates more strongly.
• Your favourites, kept masterpieces, Tal's sacrifices and Déjà vu positions – to find again and to print.
• Use offline: keeps every page, the analysis board and part of the puzzles on your device – then chessepolis works without the internet too.

Settings →

On a phone

chessepolis fits the screen – a few things work differently on a phone.

• Swipe across the puzzle to the left for the next one, to the right for the previous one.
• Put chessepolis on your home screen: it then opens like an app. With "Use offline" in the settings it works without any connection too.
• The focus is only there on a computer or a tablet. The analysis board works on a phone too: the board and its buttons stay at the top, the moves, Stockfish and the PGN pass beneath.