Gambit
Find the checkmate, every day
One position. One winning move. A new forced-mate puzzle every morning, plus a fresh 40-puzzle drop to carry you through each week.
Every puzzle is a real forced mate.
Every puzzle is a forced mate in two, three or four, with exactly one first move that works. No "best try", no engine evaluation, no ambiguity. If you find the move, it mates — and the opponent will always play the most stubborn defense available.
Tired of ads? App crashes? Dubious data collection and no offline play? So was I. That's how Gambit was born.
A puzzle habit that fits in a coffee break.
A daily that climbs through the week, a forty-puzzle drop every Monday, and coins, badges and streaks to show for it.
A new puzzle every day
The daily puzzle gets harder as the week goes on: mate in two on Monday, climbing to mate in four by the weekend. Everyone playing on the same date gets the same puzzle, so you can compare notes with a friend.
A forty-puzzle drop every week
Alongside the daily, each week brings a track of forty puzzles that ramps from mate in two through mate in four. Bonus coins at the halfway point and at the end, to stock up for hints you may need. New drop every Monday.
Track what you earn
Coins for every solve, badges for volume, streaks and depth, and a daily check-in bonus. Integrated with Game Center so you can compete with friends.
Hints that never lie
Hints are anchored to the real mating line, not to whatever position you wandered into. Wrong moves are played out rather than refused — they cost part of your move budget, and Undo rewinds you straight back.
Boards you can trust
Boards are cropped to the squares a puzzle can actually reach, and every crop is machine-verified, so a position that reads as checkmate on screen is checkmate on the full board too. A brass stripe marks where the real edge is, so you always know where pawns promote.
Works anywhere
No account, no sign-up, and no network calls of any kind. Gambit works exactly the same in airplane mode as it does at home. I wanted this on long-haul flights where the wifi was spotty at best. I figure others might, too.
Built to be read at a glance.
Missed a day? Play it anyway.
Gambit Archive unlocks every past daily puzzle and every past weekly track since launch, growing by forty-seven puzzles a week. It's optional — today's puzzle, this week's track, badges and coins are all free and need no purchase.
Prices shown are for the US storefront; your own store decides the currency, the amount, and how tax is presented. Gambit Archive is an auto-renewing subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it in the app, or in your Apple Account settings. How to cancel or restore →