Chess-doku
(Published on 25. February 2026, 16:03 by masetab)
Chess–sudoku hybrids are fairly common, though perhaps not often to this extent. The puzzle is not overly difficult and does not require deep chess knowledge, but a basic understanding of the game is necessary; how the pieces move, what checkmate is, and how a game is won.
For more experienced players, there is a particularly pleasing chess puzzle waiting after the grid is complete.
Play the sudoku here:
Rules:
Normal 8×8 sudoku rules apply. Each circled cell represents a chess piece on the corresponding square of a chessboard, with White moving up the board. Each piece type and colour is assigned a unique digit (for example, all white pawns share one digit and all black pawns another), and not all piece types must appear. All white pieces are globally lower than all black pieces, and within each colour the digit values follow standard chess hierarchy if they exist: Pawn < Knight < Bishop < Rook < Queen < King.
The chess position is legal, no piece is currently attacking any piece of the opposite colour regardless of if it is defended, and White and Black have identical material (the same number of each piece type). No pawn promotions have occurred. It is White to move, and White has a checkmate in one.
Digits separated by a white kropki dot are consecutive.
Any feedback is welcomed! Also, I would love for you to check out some of my other puzzles if you enjoy!
Solution code: Row 8
Comments
on 28. February 2026, 20:05 by Vionix
Nice puzzle!
on 27. February 2026, 20:41 by drkrupp
I solved the first version of this puzzle and the solution code was wrong. Had to do the puzzle twice. Two sudokus for the price of 1!
on 27. February 2026, 08:44 by masetab
clarified rules
on 27. February 2026, 04:55 by Guvenistan
Rule clarification: All white pieces are globally less than all black pieces. It's not that each white piece is the lower pair of each black piece.(i.e. the highest white piece is lower than the lowest black piece)
on 27. February 2026, 00:03 by zeniko
There’s some very clever interactions between Sudoku and the chess board. Thanks for sharing.
on 26. February 2026, 08:49 by fajoogaloo
Excellent puzzle. Very satisfying determining which chess pieces are necessary. Felt magical at times the way digits seemed to appear out of nowhere :)
on 26. February 2026, 02:33 by masetab
I made some small tweaks to the kropki dot placements just to ensure the bonus puzzle works properly. The changes make the puzzle slightly harder.
on 25. February 2026, 22:05 by therealsillypenguin
Really satisfying solve. I also agree with the below comment though that a non-chess player would likely find this difficult to impossible, unless I missed alternate solve paths.
on 25. February 2026, 18:56 by SirWoezel
I liked this puzzle, but I have my doubts puzzlers that do not play chess well will be able to solve this. Naturally I also hope time will prove me wrong, as this puzzle deserves to get solved.
on 25. February 2026, 18:24 by Adrian71
As a life-long chess enthusiast I really loved solving this puzzle! Very cleverly set, thanks for sharing!
