Shogi Puzzles

This is the site's puzzle collection: twenty checkmate problems you solve directly on an interactive board. Ten are mate in 1, ten are mate in 3. Each puzzle lives on its own page, states how many moves the mate takes, and checks your answer the moment you play it. No account, no timer, no downloads.

What these puzzles are

Every problem here is a tsume shogi puzzle: a composed position where the attacker forces checkmate through checks alone, against a defender who resists as long as possible. That is the traditional Japanese training format, and there is a reason it has survived for centuries. Every shogi game ends in a mating attack, so every pattern you learn here pays off in every game you play. If the format is new to you, the tsume shogi guide explains the rules and conventions before you start.

The set is built as a course, not a grab bag. The mate-in-1 problems each teach one core pattern: the gold dropped on the head of the king, the silver drop, the knight check that nothing can block, the back-rank rook, the promoted pawn that mates like a gold. The mate-in-3 problems then put those same finishing patterns at the end of a short forced sequence, so you practice the real endgame skill: seeing two moves past the first check. Themes repeat on purpose. Recognition, not calculation, is what makes endgame play fast.

How the solver works

Each puzzle page shows the position with the attacking pieces, the defending king, and your pieces in hand displayed beside the board. You move by tapping a piece and its destination, or by dragging. Pieces in hand can be dropped the same way. Play a correct check and the defender replies instantly with its best defense; keep going until the king has no answer. Play anything else and the board shakes and resets so you can try again. Solving the puzzle reveals a short explanation of why the mate works, and a replay button lets you step through the line again.

Two buttons are always available: Reset, to start the position over, and Show solution, which plays the whole line through if you are stuck. There is no penalty for using it. Watching a mate you could not find is how the pattern gets in.

How to use the set

Work in numbered order. The mate-in-1 set should start feeling easy by the second pass, and that feeling is the point: these ten patterns cover most of the mates that actually happen in beginner games. Then move to the mate-in-3 set, where the first move is usually a sacrifice or a forcing drop that drags the king onto the mating square. If a three-mover stumps you, name the final pattern first, then work backward to the check that forces it.

A few minutes a day beats an hour once a week. When you finish all twenty, replay them for speed, then test the patterns in real games against the computer on the free board.