Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle • Hacker News Board

Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#1

Post by m88m » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 2:37 PM UTC

Matle[1], a daily puzzle game that combines chess and Wordle mechanics. You have to guess a hidden checkmate.

How it works: 1. You’re given a board with five hidden squares. 2. Guess the pieces in those squares. 3. You must form a checkmate!

Hints work like Wordle: Correct piece & position Correct piece, wrong position ⬜ Wrong piece

[1] http://www.matle.io/

Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle
matle.io

Re: Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#2

Post by shirol » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 4:02 PM UTC

That's quite challenging for a first puzzle, though it is a well-known mate. Guessed in 3 tries

Re: Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#3

Post by egglemonsoup » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 4:07 PM UTC

Looks really cool, although way beyond my chess ability. Nice work

Re: Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#4

Post by oyster143 » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

Seems cool, reminds me of this video where top GMs guess the position without seeing the pieces. Some can even name players and the date of the game.

https://youtu.be/_Ntn4jEv7rE?feature=shared

Re: Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#5

Post by maaaaattttt » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 4:24 PM UTC

At first I thought it would be the typical chess exercise question, just that everybody gets the same one each day, but I like the approach you have. Makes one think differently than usual.

Re: Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#6

Post by stavros » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 4:24 PM UTC

It's really confusing to me that I drag a piece, I drop it on a square, it stays there, and there's an animation that the piece returns to the bottom. If it stays there, it shouldn't have a "returning" animation. Otherwise, it's an interesting puzzle.

Re: Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#7

Post by Out_of_Characte » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 4:25 PM UTC

Managed to guess it on the first try after realising it looked like a real game. Bit sad to see only one puzzle per day.

Sharing the result also reveils the solution in copied text, maybe remove that so someone could share the exact puzzle without immediatly seeing the solution.

Re: Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#8

Post by ajkjk » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 4:32 PM UTC

at least on the first one there was really only one way it could have happened under reasonable assumptions (mainly, that the white queen had just been taken). I'm not sure it works very well for the Wordle format, although it is fun as a puzzle otherwise.

Re: Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#9

Post by axus » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC

Worked pretty well. It was nice that it told me "this is not a mate", I'd have burned through all my tries without that guardrail.

Re: Show HN: Matle – A Daily Chess Puzzle Inspired by Wordle

#10

Post by miningape » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 4:52 PM UTC

This is actually an interesting take on a chess puzzle, instead of calculate the winning sequence it's asking you to reconstruct it.

Very cool to have to think in the other direction to solve it.