Version 2.0

30/11/2024

• > Welcome to the Puzzle Forge
  The Puzzle Forge is a new area of the website designed to be a place for users to share their own checkmate puzzles! We hope this can be a fun space for creativity and thought. Puzzles can be upvoted by users, and number of times solved also gets tracked.
• > Puzzle Forge - Puzzle Creator
  The Chess Puzzle Creator is a webpage where you can create your own chess puzzles. You can create a puzzle either by dragging and dropping the pieces, or by pasting in an FEN position. Once you have created the position for the puzzle, hit 'Analyse', and if the position is deemed a valid puzzle by the engine, you will be able to give it a name and save it. After this, your puzzle can be solved interactively by anyone who has the link or views it in the Puzzle Forge.
• > Puzzle Forge - Custom User Puzzles
  Custom user generated puzzles can be viewed and played from the Puzzle Forge. You can order by: Total Solved, Most Liked or Newest and search over: This Month, This Year or All Time. You can view your just own puzzles from the 'My Puzzles' tab in the Puzzle Forge, or another user's puzzles by clicking their name in the Puzzle Forge.
• > Puzzle Forge - Puzzle Lists
  In addition to creating single puzzles, the Puzzle Forge also allows users to create compilations of puzzles in 'Lists'. These sequences of puzzles can then be solved in order from start to finish. You can add a Puzzle Forge puzzle to your List by using the dropdown in the bottom right underneath the chess board. You can add a new list by going to the 'My Lists' tab in the Puzzle Forge. You can view lists created by other users by going to the 'User Lists' tab of the Puzzle Forge.

Version 1.7

28/09/2024

• > Clearer User Interface/Better Themes
  We've overhauled the core UI so when solving puzzles it's clearer to users who's turn it is to play. There is less information presented to you at once, meaning you can focus more on the important thing: solving puzzles! Overall things are simpler and easier to configure, so making your own themes look good takes a lot less fiddling around!
• > Better Puzzles
  Newer puzzles being added to the database are now reviewed by a human first to ensure they are good enough. In addition, we have added stricter criteria for new puzzles based on user feedback. For example, the second best option for won't leave you winning by a clear margin. As we add more puzzles into the system the overall experience will be improved.
• > Chess Quizzes
  The new Chess Quiz section hosts fun little chess trivia challenges to play!
• > Historical Puzzles
  We've continued to add a new historical puzzle every month along with an article and evaluation. Since 1.6 we've added: The Sacrifice of Istanbul, The Brilliance of Bobby Fischer, Secrets of the Automaton and The Evergreen Game.
• > Default Puzzle Theme
  We've changed the default puzzle theme to 'Classic'. We felt the previous 'Chess Puzzler' theme was too bright, colourful and distracting to new users.

Version 1.6

17/05/2024

• > UI Overhaul
  With this release, the main focus has been to update the UI to make the website feel more like a fun game, replacing white space for checkered blue and running the green colours more vividly through the design.
• > Puzzle Evaluation
  A common piece of feedback from newer players was that sometimes it's frustrating to get the answer wrong and not know why! In response, we've added browser evaluation to the chess positions when you make a wrong move. Logged in users can make use of it by clicking the 'Explain' button which appears under the chess board after making a mistake. It works by showing the engine evaluation for the strongest set of moves after your incorrect move, with some verbal feedback. This feature allows 3 evaluations per day for non members and unlimited evaluations for members.
• > Default Puzzle Theme
  We've added a new theme called 'Chess Puzzler', replacing 'Light Mode' as the default for new users. We wanted an eye catching default theme that conveys the fun aspect of the website more, with more colour. You can select it from the Theme dropdown on the top left of the chess board.
• > Speed, Speed, Speed
  As more users have been accessing the website, loading time has increasingly become a priority. We've significantly improved the loading speed of all pages. We're also doing clever things now, such as loading puzzles in the background, so you don't have to wait for the next puzzle to arrive!
• > More Puzzles
  We're continuing to add more puzzles to the database, with improvements to the generation algorithm in all areas.

Version 1.5

15/04/2024

• > End Game Puzzles
  We've been working hard on bringing out more chess puzzling content over the last few months, perfecting the algorithm to generate more types of puzzles for you. We're proud to announce that end games are now here! Enjoy up to 3 per day, or unlimited puzzles with membership.
• > Tactical Puzzles
  In addition to end games, we've added another puzzle mode, tactical puzzles! In these puzzles the goal is simply to pick the best set of moves, given the wacky position you're presented with. Similarly to end games it's 3 per day, or as many as you like with a membership.
• > Membership
  You can now help support the project by subscribing for a membership! Members will have unfiltered access to all areas of the website including: Endgame Puzzles, Tactical Puzzles, Puzzle Filter and All Puzzles.
• > All Puzzles
  Members can play all 3 chess puzzle modes (tactical, end game and regular checkmate puzzles) at once, providing a more diverse and fun experience!
• > Historical Puzzles
  Each month we will now release a historical puzzle. This will consist of an interesting article about a chess game from history, an analysis of the game and a puzzle at the end. We hope this will bring an extra dimension to the website.
• > Loading Time Optimisations
  Due to the increase in users over the past few months, puzzles had begun taking up to 5 seconds to load. We've improved efficiency in this area, reducing puzzle retrieval to less than 0.1 seconds.
• > UI Update For Mobile
  We've listened to your feedback and moved the themes dropdown below the puzzle information on mobile, so it's possible to see what colour you are without scrolling.

Version 1.4

29/01/2024

• > Puzzle Leagues
  A new way to solve chess puzzles. Puzzle leagues puts you in direct competition with other users to solve sets of puzzles each day, making the fewest mistakes in the fastest time! Each league has up to 10 players. The top 2 players in each league get promoted on Sunday midnight (00:00 UTC), whilst the bottom 4 risk demotion. The top player of the Masters league (league 1) is crowned Chess Puzzler Grand Champion each week!
• > Puzzle League Browser
  You can use the Puzzle League Browser to see the standings of any league! Who will come out on top in the Masters league and be crowned Chess Puzzler Grand Champion this week?!
• > Editing Your Profile
  Editing profile details has been improved. You can now easily add a profile picture from mobile devices, and there's an ability to link your Chess.com and Lichess profiles to your profile page.
• > Puzzle Difficulty Optimisations
  Our algorithm ranks puzzles on percieved difficulty using an AI algorithm. We've now updated the algorithm to continue to assess and adjust puzzle difficulty as real users attempt the puzzles. This will result in chess puzzles being more accurately matched to your ability.
• > Refresh Button
  As requested, a refresh button now appears below the board in the bottom right once a puzzle has been completed. Clicking the refresh button allows you to play the puzzle again.

Version 1.3

11/12/2023

• > Custom Board Themes
  A menu for customising anything from the board colours to chess pieces, and even background effects, has been added to the left hand side of the chess board. There are currently 4 default themes, including a much requested dark mode. As well as this, each user can configure and save 5 custom themes. Now the puzzle solving experince can be fine tuned to your taste! We're really excited to see what people do with this.
• > Christmas Pieces
  To celebrate the holidays we've added Christmas themed pieces to the website, hand drawn by our lovely Benedicte (you can contact her here for design work). Accompanying the beautiful pieces is a stunning snow effect, the Xmas Theme is available in the Theme Editor for those who want to get in the festive spirit!
• > Arrows
  For those playing on desktop, you can now draw arrows on the board with right click. Simply click and hold right click, drag and then release right click to draw an arrow. To remove all arrows you can left click. Hint: if you draw an arrow in the horse movement shape it will result in an L shaped arrow!
• > Square Highlighting
  Those on desktop can now highlight squares red by right clicking on them. This can be helpful to many for visualising the position. Right click on a square to highlight. Right click again to remove the highlight, or left click to completely reset the highlighted state of all squares on the board.
• > Mobile Drag
  Mobile touch controls have been improved, with faster response times and an ability to drag pieces with touch.
• > More Puzzles
  Since last update, more than 20,000 unique, never before seen puzzles have been generated by our AI. We now have well over 50,000 unique puzzles for players of all abilities, and that number is growing every day!

Version 1.2

20/11/2023

• > Mini Chess Puzzles
  Mini chess puzzles are puzzles that can be played on smaller boards with less pieces and less space. This new game mode is super fun and a little faster to play than conventional puzzles!
• > Puzzle Filter
  A new page has been added to allow filtering classic chess puzzles. Now users have much more power to help find that perfect puzzle.
• > Daily Archive
  A new page has been added to allow filtering previous daily chess puzzles. Now you can go back and see if you've got what it takes to complete them all!
• > Feedback
  We want to hear more from our users! The feedback page contains an easy form that can be filled in. Please let us know anything we can do to improve the website!
• > UI Rework
  A bit of housekeeping and gradual UI improvement.
• > Logo Update
  We now have an official logo, how exciting! We feel that the puzzle piece on top of the chess king represents our platform perfectly.

Version 1.1

02/10/2023

• > Shatranj Chess Puzzles
  We modified our puzzle generation algorithm to create Shatranj puzzles! In future updates we will introduce even more chess variants to the website.
• > Learn Shatranj
  A new page has been added to help those interested to learn the rules of Shatranj.
• > Shatranj Leaderboards
  Shatranj rating has been added to the leaderboards page.
• > Chess Board Annotation
  Upon request, we added annotation up the sides of the board so you can easily view which square is where.
• > UI Rework
  Updated the home page and UI to make the website clearer and more accessible.
• > Puzzle Sharing
  You can now share puzzles with your friends by clicking on the share button in the bottom left of the board.

Version 1.0

06/09/2023

• > Unlimited Chess Puzzles
  Using a powerful evolutionary algorithm, we've generated hundreds of thousands of unique chess positions that anyone with access to the website can solve! Pairing this with a ranking system for users with accounts, you can play puzzles tailored to your ability, helping drive your growth in Chess.
• > Daily Chess Puzzle
  Every day at 00:00 UTC a new puzzle, with interesting qualities, will be chosen for for the daily challenge. The user who solves it the fastest with the fewest mistakes will top the leaderboard.
• > Puzzle Race
  A race against time to solve as many puzzles as possible! 3 strikes and you're out. The more you solve, the harder it gets!
• > Spot the Difference
  Spot the Difference is a fun little game mode where you get a series of two puzzles displayed. As well as this, there is information as to how many moves force a checkmate and the direction of the checkmate. Choosing the position that satisfies the criteria gives you a point! Choosing the wrong answer ends the game. Can you set the record number of correct decisions in 1 minute?
• > Leaderboards
  The leaderboards page displays information about the top performing users. Some, such as classic puzzles, are ranked by rating over time. However others, such as the daily leaderboard, reset every night. Can you scale the leaderboard and reach the top?
• > User Profiles
  The account system allows users to create an account, log in and save information. This means that you will be given a rating for each game mode, as well as high scores. You can manage your profile, setting custom profile pictures and a bio. From the settings menu you can change account settings such as passwords or usernames. All accounts require a valid email you can verify.