Intro
This is a study companion to the 2026 US Chess Championship.
What is included
Tactics of the Contenders 2022-2026: 39 tactics puzzles from games between the Open section players leading up to the 2026 championship
Rounds 1 through 9 Puzzles: 8 tactics puzzles from the Round 1 and 2 games
Coming soon - tactics puzzles of all rounds
Coming Soon - annotations of the most interesting games
Coming Soon - Opening novelties report
How to solve the tactics puzzles
Go to the Training panel by clicking on the Training panel header and select a training set from the TRAINING SETS list.
Select "Prepare Exercises" to load the exercises.
If you want to, change the options for the session. See Options below.
Select the green Play button to be quizzed on the entire training set.
You can run part of a training set by selecting the "Games in this Training Set" strip and picking Play on one of the games. Only games from that point forward will be quizzed.
Each exercise will present a position - you must make the moves on the board and the app will make the opponent moves.
If there are multiple test variations in an exercise, the app will rewind to branching points to test them.
On completing an exercise, the full move tree is revealed. Check extra analysis from it by clicking on the notation. Turn off the auto-advance option to be able to see them.
The training session can be stopped at any time using the red Stop button.
Once completed or stopped, a session can be re-run or continued using the green Re-run or Continue buttons.
Training Set Options
Randomize exercise order - exercises positions will be presented in a random order
Retry wrong moves - you will be able to try a move again if your move wasn't the solution
Auto-advance to next exercise - on completing an exercise, go to the next immediately
Hide arrows and highlights during quiz - hide arrows and square highlight annotations until exercise is completed
Annotations and Commentary
The move tree shown during training mode is in Algebraic Notation. Many are annotated with standard chess annotation symbols to indicate who is winning or whether a move was a mistake or strong. Some positions have arrows and square highlighting to visually explain key maneuvers and squares. The exercises always start from a position in a real game from the event, but often deviate or go further than the game did. The actual final move of the game is always marked with a result code: 1-0 = White won, 0-1 = Black won, 1/2-1/2 = draw.
You're encouraged to check the extra analysis as well as how the game went for exercises that you found interesting.
Feedback
We'd love to hear from you! Please send any questions, corrections or suggestions to contact@chessmaven.com.
© 2026 Chessmaven. Individual exercises may be quoted or shared with attribution to Chessmaven and a link to this workspace (link). The exercise set as a whole may not be copied, redistributed, or extracted by automated means.