Daily chess puzzle

Daily puzzle #46

One day's position from the daily rotation, playable by anyone. Find the forced mate — the defence answers every move with its most stubborn reply.

Daily #46

Friday 16 October 2026

From the archive — it won’t count toward your streak. Today’s puzzle →

e5, empty
Black to playRated 860
Mate in 1
Find mate in 1.
More puzzles

How the daily puzzle works

One position, everyone, every day

Each day brings a new forced mate — in one, two or three moves — and everyone gets the same position on the same date. The day turns over at midnight where you are, not at some server’s midnight.

Any mate counts

Your move is judged on the position, not matched against a stored answer: if it still forces checkmate in the moves left, it’s right, and the defence answers with its most stubborn reply. Every puzzle has been checked by an exhaustive search, so the mate is really there.

Keep the streak

Solve today’s and it counts toward your daily streak — the same streak as the Daily tab in the puzzle trainer, which keeps serving positions levelled to your rating. No account needed.

New to mating patterns? Start with the back-rank mate and the smothered mate, or work through the Learn track.