Announcing The Updated Puzzle Rush

It's been one year since Chess.com released Puzzle Rush, the game where players solve as many chess problems as they can in a short time. Puzzle Rush quickly became one of the most popular features on the site, and everyone from chess beginners to the world's top grandmasters were hooked.

The rules remain simple: 

• Solve as many puzzles as you can in the given amount of time.
• Each puzzle gets harder as you go.
• Three strikes and you’re out.

Now, one year after its beginning, Puzzle Rush has been updated, expanded and improved. The updated puzzles are more clear, more satisfying and drawn from a larger pool of difficulty levels and tactical themes, Chess.com officials said.

Starting at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Thursday, November 21, the updated Puzzle Rush launches:

• All Puzzle Rush scores 50 and higher will be reset, giving everyone a new and equal chance to land on the leaderboard.
• A new Puzzle Battle World Championship tournament will launch this week, where any member can qualify to play alongside some of the world's top grandmasters.
• Puzzle Rush will have expanded to more than 150,000 puzzles, up from 55,000 puzzles at launch one year ago.
• More than 120,000 new puzzles will have been added.
• Puzzle Rush will have removed more than 25,000 unclear or inferior puzzles from the pool, after a thorough puzzle audit that included a substantial manual review and algorithmic approaches.
• More than 1,000 new puzzles will now be added every day.
• There will now be more than 1,000 puzzles in each rating 50-point band from 100 all the way up to 2,600.

Chess.com staff also increased the rating accuracy of all puzzles in the Puzzle Rush pool, and is now generating interesting puzzles across all difficulties. The speed at which new puzzles are added has increased by a factor of 10 after a new statistical model was developed specifically to improve and expand Puzzle Rush.

"Puzzle Rush has been amazing—beyond our wildest expectations," said Chess.com CEO @Erik. "I am personally addicted and incredibly motivated by my own records. We learned a lot about puzzles and tactics from Puzzle Rush," he said.

High scores of 50 or more will be reset on Nov. 21 to level the playing field after the early days of Puzzle Rush, when the narrower scope and variety of puzzles allowed top rushers to memorize solutions. 

"Because Puzzle Rush launched when we did not have the quantity, quality and range of puzzles we needed, we saw some of our passionate members memorizing the puzzles at the top end and solving high-end puzzles from memorization," said Chess.com CEO @Erik. "We even saw some scores boosted by having a single puzzle served over and over!" he said. 

"We have now solved these issues, and will launch a Puzzle Battle World Championship," he said.

The improved generation of accurate and logical puzzles especially at the highest difficulty will now add greater integrity to both the Puzzle Rush leaderboard and the upcoming world championship, Chess.com officials said. 

The Puzzle Battle World Championship will be played in the popular head-to-head format of Puzzle Rush, serving two players the same puzzles in the same order in a race to get the highest score. The tournament will feature a field of 16, headed by 14 invited players—including some of the world's strongest grandmasters, Puzzle Rush specialists and popular chess streamers

Want to play in the Puzzle Battle World Championship? You can—if you're smart and quick enough. Starting Friday, Nov. 22, a qualification process will be open where any Chess.com member can advance into the 16-player field. After the qualified group is narrowed by two tournaments, two qualifying spots will available for anyone in the world who meets the eligibility qualifications. (More on that at the Puzzle Battle World Championship announcement.)

Try out the updated Puzzle Rush and grab a spot on the new leaderboard starting at 9 a.m. Pacific on Thursday, Nov. 21.

Can't get enough Puzzle Rush?

• Find out your Puzzle Rush playing strength according to GM Serper.
• Find out ways to improve your Puzzle Rush high score.
• Try to qualify for the upcoming Puzzle Battle World Championship.

What do you think of the updated Puzzle Rush? Let us know in the comments.