Puzzle Rush is the new feature brought out by our friends over at chess.com – and it is causing a bit of a sensation.
The platform’s latest puzzle game been described as the “new chess drug” and it has clearly been a hit. Grandmasters like Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler and Eric Hansen say they are gripped by it.
And not just them. Regular users also seem to love it, or at least according to Twitter. Here’s Chessable’s Geert van der Velde talking about it after hitting 29:
I got 29 in @chesscom’s #puzzlerush. That’s not bad, right? pic.twitter.com/fmkCGvEkT7
— Geert van der Velde (@blackatlantic) November 26, 2018
Grandmaster Judit Polgar, while taking a break from commentating at the World Chess Championship, was introduced to it.
Unsurprisingly, the former world top 10 player – and greatest female player in history – scored a scorching 38 on her first go!
So @GMJuditPolgar got 38 on her first attempt on @chesscom's Puzzle Rush pic.twitter.com/THDLAvZFXC
— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) November 26, 2018
Our co-founder International Master John Bartholomew has also been playing Puzzle Rush and even elicited a clever idea to break the deadlock at the Carlsen-Caruana match:
Shout-out to the viewer in Twitch chat tonight who suggested that the tiebreaker for the World Championship ought to just be a round of Puzzle Rush 😂
— John Bartholomew (@fins0905) November 27, 2018
Maybe we need a Puzzle Rush World Championship?
Is Puzzle Rush bad for you?
No, of course not! But be aware – some users have been reporting some worrying experiences:
Just spent 7 hours playing #PuzzleRush in order to raise my score from a 41 to a 42…what has become of my life?
— Justin (@JustinBChess) November 26, 2018
And others have clearly gone too far:
I took a break from Puzzle Rush in order to make this video about how I've been playing too much Puzzle Rush. pic.twitter.com/tPkNesphyX
— Dan (@AntonSquaredMe) November 26, 2018
The rules to Puzzle Rush are simple:
- Solve as many puzzles as you can in five minutes.
- Each puzzle gets harder as you go.
- Three strikes and you’re out.
Writing on the Puzzle Rush page, Chessable user David Millern said: “Puzzle Rush could be a good competitor for high-volume pattern recognition training, like Saltmining and The Woodpecker Method, if there were a setting that allowed the player to do a quick review of the three strikes puzzles, assuming there were three strikes.”
Puzzle Rush is only available right now on chess.com’s desktop site. However, it will be released for iOS soon and the Android version is apparently coming early next year.
