Tactics Lab
Tactics Lab. Recognize. Calculate. Master.
Practise tactical patterns until you see them in your own games — with honest feedback on what you solved first try and what you still need to work on.
What you can do today
- Practice sessions of 10 or 20 puzzles: a ChessCanvas Mix, or the patterns you choose.
- Difficulty in four bands, from Introductory to Expert, based on each puzzle’s Lichess rating — the puzzle’s difficulty, not yours.
- Hints, retry and the solution when you want them; a wrong first move is counted honestly, never as a first-try solve.
- An optional timer; timed results are kept separately from untimed ones.
- A recap after every session, with one click to replay the puzzles you did not solve first try.
- Your workspace, your way on a desktop: move and resize panels, change the board size, save layouts, or switch to Focus Mode. Phones get the board first, with Focus Mode and board size one tap away.
- Board sounds for moves, captures, checks and solved puzzles, with a sound check in Settings.
With a free account: progress you can trust
- My Tactical Development: sessions, puzzles attempted, first-attempt solves and the positions to review.
- A three-month activity calendar and your training history.
- Pattern performance that waits for enough evidence before it calls something a strength or a weakness.
- Training goals for the day or the week, and homework chosen from your own results.
- The same record on every device you sign in on, including your workspace arrangement.
Training is free with a ChessCanvas account, and your progress, goals and homework stay with it.
Where the puzzles come from
Every puzzle comes from the Lichess puzzle database, published under CC0, and links back to its Lichess page and source game once you have solved it.
Before a puzzle is offered, ChessCanvas replays it move by move, checks that its mating claims and length agree with the moves, keeps only puzzles whose rating is settled and that solvers rated highly, and sets aside duplicates. An independent engine spot-check of a sample comes on top. The tactical pattern of each puzzle is Lichess’s tag: ChessCanvas has not reviewed it puzzle by puzzle, and the app says so.
Today the Tactics Lab offers 1,139 puzzles in 9 of the 17 patterns. More arrive as they pass the same checks. Your results never change a rating — ChessCanvas has no player puzzle rating.
Keep reading
Start your first tactics session.
Free with a ChessCanvas account: your progress, goals and homework are kept with it.
Already have an account? Sign in.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. ChessCanvas is free: create a free account (an email address and a password) and everything in the Studio is open to you: analysis, game review, imports, the master database, Tactics and Studies. Your Studies and imported Chess.com and Lichess games are saved with your account.
Does ChessCanvas have chess puzzles?
Yes. The Tactics Lab has 1,139 puzzles from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0) in 9 of the 17 tactical patterns ChessCanvas teaches. Every puzzle is replayed and checked automatically before it is offered; the pattern tags come from Lichess and are not individually reviewed by ChessCanvas. Training is free with a ChessCanvas account, which keeps your progress, goals and homework. Your results never change a rating: ChessCanvas has no player puzzle rating.
Does ChessCanvas work on mobile?
Yes. Analysis, Game Review and Studies have a phone layout with the board first. The Databases workspace works on phones but is designed for larger screens.