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Comment by makoto12 | Hacker News Reader

I dunno hey. It doesn't really make sense to have puzzles as a wordle. Because there should be one correct solution from the outset. The chess wordle to guess the opening makes much more sense in the context of wordle games https://jackli.gg/chessle/

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I actually really disagree.

The one I just played, I guessed in four. But the key thing I like about this format is that you're evaluating all the tension points in a position, and then figuring out what the order of operations needs to be. So on my third guess, I got all but the second move right. Then I had to work backwards and forwards to figure the rest out.

I quite liked it. Ostensibly, the same is true in a puzzle, but in this format there's more opportunity for trial and error to discover more about the position you might not have seen in the first glance.

It's not a puzzle, it's taken from a game, so the sequence isn't necessarily always the strongest moves

oh fair enough. concept still a bit weird for me. not sure why i want to be guessing suboptimal moves from a position. But i should play it a bit to see if i'm wrong :)

Grandmaster moves are likely more optimal than any guesses an average person will make

I try to carefully pick games where you don't have to guess amongst random bad lines. There could be several logical continuations, and then you could combine variations into one guess to narrow it down. In that sense, some of the same Wordle strats apply. Consequently, most of the positions are taken from games between high-rated players, where their moves are logical or near-optimal. Two of them have featured world champion Magnus Carlsen.

That's really cool. I'm rethinking my opinion :) I think it really depends on the positions that you curate. I tried todays one, and managed to get it in 5. so definitely not easy and makes you think a bit more like how players at that level think.

I think this is my problem. I play chess full games only once in awhile, but I play chess puzzles every day on chess.com, so I keep scrutinizing for a "correct" move.

Chess puzzles always have one solution. I don't know how this game was picked but the solution to this particular puzzle is the only solution. There are certainly other moves that could be played in this position but they are all losing as far as I can tell. Assuming every position from every game chosen is like this it sort of makes sense but as someone who does a lot of chess puzzles I don't see how this is much different from just normally doing chess puzzles.

No, I am pretty sure you are wrong. Rb6 Rc8 .. Rxe6 Rxc7 .. Rxf6 was played in the game, but Rb6 Rc8 .. Qb7 Qe8 .. Rxf6 is an alternative line with the same idea.

OK, I just checked, the computer says I'm wrong. I am wrong because black can instead go Rb6 Rc8 .. Qb7 Qc4 .. Rxf6 Qxf1!.

Also, you're still at least a bit wrong because the computer thinks since black is already losing, it should go for Rb6 Re8 .. Rxe6 R8xe6, black giving up the queen for the rook in order to protect the bishop in the end. But yes, that's a computer idea.

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