The Puzzle Academy skill tree

The skills that you can learn with Puzzle Academy form a skill tree, which means that you have to master certain skills before you can learn a new skill. Skill trees are a concept used in video games, usually in role playing games where you can update the skills of the character you are playing. In Puzzle Academy we use this concept for your real skills in chess tactics.

This image shows a small subset of the Puzzle Academy skill tree. To learn the skill "Queen fork", you have to master the skills "Rook fork" and "Bishop fork" first. Then, if you also master "Deflection", you are ready to learn the combination "Deflection into fork".

In this video I'm talking a bit more about the Puzzle Academy concepts, including the skill tree.

New skills and levels

We are always adding new skills and new levels to Puzzle Academy.
Recently we broke the 100 skills milestone!
Puzzle Academy now has more than 80.000 puzzles in 256 levels for learning 101 skills, making it the most comprehensive chess tactics course in the world.
You can see the full curriculum here. Here are some examples from recent additions:

Deflection into promotion

Level 1: Rb3! Rxb3 a1=Q

Counter attack

Level 1: Bb5! cxd4 Bxd7

Clearance for fork

Level 2: Nf6+! Kh8 Ne8 Rcd7 Bf6+ Kg8 Bxd4

Decoy into skewer

Level 2: Rxe7+! Kxe7 Bc5+ Ke8 Re3+! Kd7 Bxf8

Double bishop mate

Level 4: Qxf2+!! Kxf2 Re2+ Kxf3 Bg4+ Kf4 Bh6#

Puzzle Academy beta test

Puzzle Academy is now in beta test. This test is available to our patrons. If you want to give Puzzle Academy a try, support ChessPuzzle.net and access the ad-free version, join as a Patron here, and start playing.

I'd like to make Puzzle Academy available to chess coaches and in class rooms. If you are a coach or teacher, and are interested in trying Puzzle Academy, please contact me.