How Much Do Chess Puzzles Cost? Free vs Paid

Chess puzzles cost nothing here. Puzzle Rush is in the free tier, in the browser, with no sign-up, and the tactics lessons that teach each pattern are free as well. A paid plan adds unlimited runs and the full set of interactive lessons. Paying for puzzles only makes sense once the free set is being solved properly every day and running out.

Start a Puzzle Rush run in the browser while you read; no sign-up.

What do puzzles cost on this site?

Nothing to start. Puzzle Rush, the timed run where the positions get harder as you go, is free and needs no account. The tactics lessons in the Academy, which teach the fork, the pin, the skewer and the discovered attack on a live board, are free too. The paid app plans add unlimited runs and the complete lesson set, and the trainer plans give a coach the puzzles for every student on the roster. Nobody has to pay to find out whether puzzles work for them.

What does free actually include?

Enough to improve for months. A daily Puzzle Rush run trains recognition at speed. The 197 lessons cover the patterns the puzzles are built from, in order, so a pattern met in a puzzle can be studied as a lesson the same day. The engine analysis after every game on the free board points at the tactic you missed, which is a puzzle drawn from your own play. That last one is the most valuable puzzle there is and it costs nothing anywhere.

What does paying add?

Volume and structure. Unlimited runs for a player who has used the free ones and wants more. The full lesson library for a player working through it in order. For coaches, the trainer plans start at $48 a month for up to 15 students and put Puzzle Rush and the complete tactics library on every student's account, with a record of who actually practised. That record is the thing a coach pays for; the puzzles themselves were free.

When is a paid puzzle set worth it?

When the free one is being finished. A player who solves the daily run properly, reads the solution to every miss and still wants more has earned the upgrade. A player who guesses through the free run in two minutes and moves on has not, and a paid set will be guessed through the same way. The guide to chess puzzles covers what solving properly means. Do that first, then decide whether volume is the constraint.

Why is the price the wrong question?

Because puzzle results depend almost entirely on method and almost not at all on the set. Ten puzzles solved slowly, with the whole line held in mind before the move, teach more than a hundred solved on a hunch, and both are available free. The expensive puzzle habit is the fast, careless one, whatever the subscription costs, because it trains guessing. The cheap habit is the slow one, and it is free.

What about puzzle books and paid trainers elsewhere?

A good book of themed puzzles is a fine purchase for a player who will set each one up on a board. Most do not, and the book becomes something read in bed with the answers half-covered. Paid trainers elsewhere sell mostly the same positions with a rating attached. The rating is motivating and worth having, and this site gives you one on the free board too. Buy the book if you will use a board. Otherwise the free run does the job.

Where does a coach fit?

Puzzles teach recognition; a coach teaches you to look. The player who solves puzzles well and misses the same tactics in games does not need more puzzles. They need someone watching them play who can see that they never check the opponent's threats, and private coaching here is built for exactly that, one to one on a shared live board at $60 a session. Puzzles free, coaching paid, in that order, is the cheapest route to tactics that show up in games.

How do you tell whether the free set is being used properly?

Three questions, answered honestly. Did each puzzle take long enough to hold the whole line before the move, or did the piece move on a hunch? Was every miss read until the reason was clear, or clicked past? And did the missed tactic from the last lost game get set up and solved, or ignored? A player who can say yes to all three for a month has extracted what the free set offers and is entitled to want more. A player who cannot has a method problem, and no paid set fixes a method problem; it just charges for it.

The short answer

Free, for as long as you are using the free set properly. Paid when you run out of it, or when you are a coach who wants the puzzles and the practice record on every student's account. Never paid as a substitute for solving slowly, because no price fixes a fast habit.

Common questions

Is Puzzle Rush free on Grandmaster Gains?

Yes. Puzzle Rush is in the free tier, in the browser, with no sign-up. Unlimited runs and the complete interactive lesson set come with a paid plan.

Do I need to pay for chess puzzles to improve?

No. The free run, the free tactics lessons and the engine analysis of your own games are enough for months of improvement if they are used slowly and daily.

What do paid chess puzzle plans include?

Unlimited runs and the full lesson library for a player; for a coach, the puzzles and a practice record on every student account, from $48 a month for up to 15 students.

Are chess puzzle books worth buying?

For a player who sets each position up on a board and works it out before checking, yes. For anyone who reads the answers, the free run teaches more.

Read next in this cluster

• How to Choose Chess Puzzles for Your Level
• Chess Puzzles vs Playing Games: Which Trains More?

Where to go from here

Everything above is the practical layer, the part that decides whether a club survives, whether a child keeps playing, and whether a coaching business pays. It is also the part almost nobody writes about, because it is less interesting than opening theory and far more useful.

If you are teaching, the two things that move the needle fastest are structure and measurement: a session that has the same shape every week, and a number each student can watch go up. Neither requires you to be a strong player. Both require you to be organised, and organisation is the thing you can actually control.

The rest of this Library covers the chess itself: twenty-one openings written from both sides, seven complete guides to tactics, endgames, checkmate patterns and strategy, and twenty variants with a guide each. All of it is free, and all of it is playable on a live board, which matters more than reading it.

More on coaching and scholastic chess

• Chess Puzzles Examples and What Each One Teaches
• Chess Puzzles Mistakes That Hold Your Rating Back
• Chess Puzzles vs Playing Games: Which Trains More?