Daily Brains · one chess problem a day: find the forced checkmate.
Daily Mate is the chess puzzle in Daily Brains (/daily). Every day the whole world gets the same position and the same instruction: White (or Black) to play and mate in N. Make the moves on a newspaper-style diagram board; the opponent answers by itself with its toughest defence. Every puzzle in the bank has been checked by the game's own solver: the mate is forced, and it really takes exactly that many moves.
STORY & LORE
The week
Mondays are a warm-up mate in 1. Tuesday to Friday are mate in 2. Saturdays and Sundays are the weekend special, mate in 3. The board turns round when Black is to move, so the side you are playing is always at the bottom.
Where the puzzles come from
The positions were found by the game's own generator: thousands of engine self-play games were scanned move by move for positions where the side to move has a forced mate. A position was kept only if the mate takes exactly the advertised number of moves (no quicker mate exists), there is a single winning first move, the side to move is not in check and is not more than a few points of material ahead. The move that led to the position is shown highlighted. The bank holds 570 positions (80 mate in 1, 300 mate in 2, 190 mate in 3): about 75 weeks of daily puzzles before any list repeats.
The diagram
The board is drawn like the chess column in a printed paper: hatched dark squares, ink-drawn pieces made for the game, coordinates round the edge. The last move is shaded yellow, your selected piece blue, a king in check glows red.
HOW IT PLAYS
Moving
Tap a piece, then tap a target square, or drag it. Dots mark the legal moves and rings mark captures. A pawn reaching the last rank asks which piece it becomes. On a keyboard, the arrow keys move a cursor and Enter or Space picks up and drops; Esc cancels.
Any winning move counts
The game does not compare you with a book line. After every move it asks its solver whether mate is still forced in the moves you have left; if yes, the move stands and the opponent replies with the defence that holds out longest. If not, it is a strike: the move is shown in red and taken back.
Strikes and scoring
Three strikes end the day and the forced mate is played out on the board. A solve scores 800 points, minus 250 per strike, plus a speed bonus of up to 200 that fades to zero over 2, 3 or 4 minutes (mate in 1, 2 or 3). The clock pauses while a sheet is open. A solve with no strikes is a perfect day; the maximum is 1000.
Sharing
The share line shows one square per attempt (green for a good move, red for a strike), whether you mated first try, your time and score, with no spoilers about the position.
THE WEEK
| Day | Puzzle | Bank |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Mate in 1 | 80 |
| Tuesday – Friday | Mate in 2 | 300 |
| Saturday, Sunday | Mate in 3 | 190 |
REWARDS
| Event | Reward |
|---|---|
| Solve the puzzle | 15 Tickets |
| Solve with no strikes (perfect) | +25 Tickets |
| Checkmate! (first solve) | ♟️ Bronze · 10 Tickets |
| Clean Sheet (no strikes) | 🎯 Silver · 20 Tickets |
| Opening Theory (3-day streak) | 🔥 Bronze · 15 Tickets |
| Club Champion (7-day streak) | 🏆 Gold · 40 Tickets |
| Grand Strategist (30-day streak) | 👑 Legendary · 100 Tickets |
VERSION HISTORY
- Launch version in Daily Brains.
- Own chess rules engine (castling, en passant, promotion, check, mate, stalemate) checked against standard perft counts, plus a mate-in-N solver.
- 570 solver-verified puzzles from our own generator: mate in 1 on Mondays, mate in 2 midweek, mate in 3 at weekends.
- Tap or drag to move, keyboard cursor, automatic best defence, three strikes, streaks, statistics and share line.