Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Tactics Problems? up

365Chess.com Tactics Problems are a collection of computer-generated puzzles from real games. Solving these tactics problems you will test and train your tactical abilities and exercise your chess skills.

What are the Compositions? up

Compositions are puzzles created by a composer setting the pieces in a particular position, and your goal is to achieve a given task. For instance, a position might be given with the instruction (called stipulation) that white is to move first, and checkmate black in two moves against any possible defense.

Chess Compositions do not use positions taken from games. The Compositions you'll face are a selection of the bests problems of all the times.

How are the problems generated? up

Chess compositions are created by a composer and aren't positions taken from real games. These problems belong to a database we have compiled and maintained continuously.

How can I start solving problems? up

To start solving puzzles you should point your browser to https://www.365chess.com/puzzles.php. Once there you should choose wheter you want to solve Tactics Problems or Compositions. Then you'll be asked for the rating and solving mode you rather prefer.

What are the Rated / Unrated rating mode? up

In Rated mode you ranking will change after each puzzle. In Unrated mode you can practice and you ranking won't change.

What are the Standard / Advanced solving mode? up

In Standard mode you won't have a time limit to solve the problem. In Advanced mode you must solve the puzzle as fast as you can and the amount of time taken to solve the problem will be used in order to calculate your new rating.

What is the problem's time display used for? up

That's the time taken to solve the current problem. If you are solving in advanced mode, the time will be used to compute your new rating.

What is the Finish Session used for? up

Pressing that button means you did the last problem of your session. You'll be redirected to the puzzles main page and you can continue browsing the site.

You may start another puzzle solving session anytime you want.

What are problem's tags? up

Apllying tags to a puzzle help to categorize it. You can contribute to classify puzzles adding or removing tags.

When a problem is first added to the site it hasn't any tags.

How does rating system work? up

The rating formula used in 365Chess.com is based on the Glicko ratings system. After a solving attempt the player's and problem's rating vary.

In Advanced mode, the time consumed in solving a problem modifies the final rating. The longer it takes to solve the problem less points you'll obtain.

How are tactical problems served? up

In each attempt, each solver receives a problem with similar rating than she has. Remember that that puzzle's rating depends on previous solving attempt from other players. So in the bigining all the problems have the same rating.

I've found a problem that is not correct. What should I do? up

Unfortunately there may be some wrong problems in the database. If you find a problem you think it is incorrect just flag it pressing the button "Report as incorrect". We will check it as soon as possible and correct the issue.

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