What you are solving
RoChess! has more than 1,300 rated puzzles and a Puzzles leaderboard. A puzzle is a position with a strong move or a short forced line. It is separate from a Bullet, Blitz, or Rapid game.
The experience does not publish puzzle themes, a rush timer, or a daily puzzle count. Solve the position in front of you. Do not expect a named mode that this page has not seen.
Order of looking
Use this order before you move:
- Checks. Does a move attack the enemy king? If several checks exist, calculate the reply to each. A check that can be captured for free is not a combination.
- Captures. What can you take, and what recaptures? Compare the material after the sequence, not after your first take.
- Threats. Forks, pins, and skewers. A knight fork attacks two things the opponent cannot answer at once. A pin is a line attack on a piece that should not move. A skewer hits the more valuable piece first.
- Mate. Confirm the king has no flight square, no capture, and no block. Then submit.
If none of those work, the puzzle may be a quiet improving move. Recheck unprotected pieces before you guess.
Mate patterns worth recognising
- Queen and king: the queen takes away a row while your king covers the escape.
- Two rooks: they cut the king rank by rank, or file by file.
- Back rank: a rook or queen enters the last rank when the king is boxed in by its own pawns and nothing can interpose or capture.
- Smothered patterns: a knight checks a king that has no square because its own pieces fill them.
These are recognition aids. The puzzle still has to be calculated.
After a miss
Replay the position and name the tactic in one sentence. Then look for that same picture in your next bot game. Game Review is where you check whether the pattern showed up and you missed it.
A puzzle rating climb does not change your match rating. Use puzzles to make the match review shorter.