Example game play

In this video you can see me play Puzzle Academy on a test account (level 19), and on my own account (level 210).

Comprehensive set of skills

With Puzzle Academy you can learn a comprehensive set of tactical skills. There are currently 90 skills, with more than 200 difficulty levels that you can learn and master.
Refer the complete Puzzle Academy curriculum to see all skills.

The skills are divided into the following sections:

Fundamentals

Run away, level 2: Qc7!

You will learn to capture your opponent's pieces, and to protect your own pieces. Again and again I've seen beginners struggle with this. Sometimes they play a game really well, and then suddenly they hang a piece and lose. This won't happen to you after learning these fundamentals.

Tactics

Trapping piece, level 2: Be8! Rc4 Bb5 traps the rook

You will learn all the tactical motifs that allow you to win material, like forks, discovered attacks, pins, and so on.

Combinations

Decoy into fork, level 1: Qh8+!

You will combine several tactical motifs to win material. For the first time you can systematically learn specific types of combinations. These combinations happen frequently, even in games of very strong players.

Checkmate patterns

Smothered mate, level 1: Nd6#

You will learn all checkmate patterns, starting with easy examples. Mastering these patterns will allow you to spot them several moves ahead, while you are practicing more and more difficult examples.

Checkmate combinations

Decoy into checkmate, level 1: Qxh7! Kxh7 Rh4#

You will use tactical motifs to deliver checkmate. Combine the motifs and patterns you learned in the previous sections to checkmate your opponents, often including spectacular sacrifices.

Defence

Desperado, level 1: Qd3+! Qxd3 stalemate

Learn how to defend against your opponent's threats. Mastering defence allows you to avoid unnecessary losses, and sometimes even to turn around the game.

Personalized learning

The skills and their difficulty levels in Puzzle Academy form a skill tree. You might know skill trees from video games, but here the skill tree maps your real skills in chess tactics. Based on the skills you have mastered, you get your own personal choice of new skills that you can learn, or upgrade to the next level.

Personalized practice

Learning a new skill is the first step, but true mastery comes from practice. That's why Puzzle Academy includes a personalized practice mode, which lets you practice what you've learned. This practice mode is based on your strengths and weaknesses. You can track your progress of each skill towards mastery. Puzzle Academy is based on more than 70,000 puzzles, to ensure you have a great experience practicing, no matter your current skillset. All solutions are annotated with text and graphical comments.

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.