v1.0.0 · Windows & Linux

PuzzledChess

Sharpen your tactics against real positions. PuzzledChess deals random puzzles from the Lichess open puzzle database, plays your moves back to you with animation and sound, and scores you on how fast you find them.

Download for Windows Download for Linux

30,000 puzzles are bundled in the download. No extra setup needed.

PuzzledChess showing a chess board mid-puzzle with the score and timer

Download

Pre-built binaries for both platforms. Each archive already contains a curated puzzle dataset, so the game is playable the moment you open it.

Windows

64-bit Windows 10 or newer. Statically linked, so there are no extra runtime DLLs to keep alongside the executable.

PuzzledChess-windows-x86_64.zip 64-bit · Windows 10+ All releases & checksums versions, SHA256SUMS.txt

Linux

Built on Ubuntu and portable across modern glibc distributions. raylib is linked statically, so the only requirements are OpenGL and the usual X11 libraries.

PuzzledChess-linux-x86_64.tar.gz 64-bit · glibc based distros Build status every push is compiled for both platforms

Running it? Both archives unpack into a single folder with PuzzledChess and assets/ side by side. Run the game from that folder and keep the two together — the puzzle database, textures and sounds are all loaded relative to the working directory.

Game modes

Pick a mode from the main menu. Faster solves are worth more points, from 1000 for an instant answer down to 100 if you take your time.

One Shot A single mistake ends the run and sends you back to the menu with your score reset.

Timed Solve as many puzzles as you can in a 60 second session, then compare your score against your best.

No Limit No clock and no mistakes. The right way to grind through puzzles you have not seen before.

Controls

Input	Action
Left click	Select a piece, then a highlighted square
`→`	Play the next expected move for you
`Esc`	Close the window

One Shot returns to the menu after a wrong move, Timed when the 60 seconds run out. No Limit runs until you close the window.

Where the puzzles come from

Positions are sampled from the Lichess open puzzle database, which ships roughly 4 million positions mined from real games.

A random 30,000 puzzle subset is bundled so the download stays small. For the full collection, run scripts/fetch_puzzles.sh and point the game at it with the PUZZLEDCHESS_PUZZLES environment variable.

Build it yourself

All you need is CMake, a C++ compiler and raylib 5.x.

# Linux (Arch / CachyOS)
sudo pacman -S base-devel cmake raylib

# Linux (Debian / Ubuntu)
sudo apt install build-essential cmake libraylib-dev

# macOS
brew install cmake raylib

git clone https://github.com/redsteadz/PuzzledChess.git
cd PuzzledChess
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j
./build/bin/PuzzledChess

No raylib installed? Let CMake fetch and compile it for you:

cmake -S . -B build -DPUZZLEDCHESS_USE_BUNDLED_RAYLIB=ON
cmake --build build -j

Cross-compiling for Windows? The repository ships a MinGW-w64 toolchain file at cmake/toolchain-mingw-x86_64.cmake. Add

-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchain-mingw-x86_64.cmake
      -DPUZZLEDCHESS_STATIC_RUNTIME=ON

to get a standalone .exe.