What Is Chessguessr? A Daily Chess Move-Guessing Game

Updated

Chessguessr is a daily puzzle game where you see a position from a real chess game and try to guess the five moves that were actually played next. It works like Wordle, but for chess games: after each guess, tile colors tell you how close you were. A new position appears every day at midnight UTC, and the site presents it as a game between two named players with ratings — for example, "Amirfer (2190) – Cybermemere (2277)."

How a round works

You are shown a position from a real game. Your task is to enter the five moves that followed, in order. After each guess, the color of each tile shows how close that guess was to the real move.

The feedback has three levels, based on the examples on the site:

Tile color meaning What it tells you Example from the site
Correct move, correct spot The move is right and in the right position in the sequence Nd5
In the played line, wrong spot The move was played somewhere in the line, but not at this position Bxb6
Same piece type, wrong move A piece of the same type moved here, but not this specific move Nxg7 (a knight moved, but not necessarily the same knight)

So a green-style tile confirms a move and its place, a "wrong spot" tile tells you the move exists later or earlier in the line, and a "same piece type" tile narrows down which piece moved without confirming the move itself.

The notation rule that trips people up

The site states explicitly: the notation has to be identical for moves to be considered the same. For example, Nxf7 and Nxf7+ are not treated as the same move. A check symbol, a capture symbol, or a different destination square all change the notation, so an answer that is "almost right" can still register as wrong or as a lower match tier.

This matters most when you are confident about the piece and the square but unsure whether the move gave check, captured, or was a different kind of move. Enter the exact notation you believe was played.

Practical tips for solving

  • Use the piece-type feedback first. If a tile says a knight moved but not which one, you have narrowed the move to knight moves from the position — list the legal knight moves and test the most forcing ones.
  • Treat "wrong spot" as a placement clue. A move that was played but in the wrong spot tells you the move belongs somewhere in the five-move sequence, so you can keep it and reposition it rather than discard it.
  • Check forcing moves early. Checks, captures, and threats are common in real games and are often the moves players actually chose, so they are reasonable first guesses.
  • Watch the notation exactly. Add or remove +, x, or # only when you believe the real move had them.

Controls and daily reset

The interface includes an Undo last move option and a Submit action, so you can correct a mis-typed move before committing it. Your guesses are tracked in a "Your guesses" list as you play.

A new position appears every day at midnight UTC, so the puzzle is the same for everyone during that window and changes on that schedule.

What Chessguessr is not

It is not a full chess game or an engine analysis tool. You are not playing the position move by move against an opponent — you are reconstructing a sequence that was already played in a real game. The site describes it as "like Wordle, or Chessle, but for chess games," which places it in the daily-puzzle genre rather than the play-a-game genre.

If you already enjoy Wordle-style daily puzzles and know standard algebraic notation, Chessguessr fits that habit directly. If you are new to chess notation, the notation-identity rule is the main thing to learn before your first guess, since a correct idea written with the wrong symbol will not score as correct.