4x4 Solo Mini Chess Puzzles

No ads, nags, or in-app purchases. No internet connection required. Fully functional offline puzzle game app.

This is a solitaire variation game of Chess.
You are presented with a 4x4 Chess board populated from a pool consisting of 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights, 1 Pawn, 1 Queen, and 1 King. You may populate the board with 2-8 pieces.
Using the movement rules of standard Chess, your goal is to clear the board of all but your last attacking piece with the highest possible score. Here, the pawn is allowed to capture on any diagonal, not only forward.

Each board presents a unique 4x4 Solo Mini Chess puzzle and is not just randomly generated or preset, but results from a complex algorithm to create a solvable puzzle.

Choose an attacking piece with a tap and it will glow blue. Then, tap on the piece you wish to capture. If you want to choose a different attacking piece before making a move, tap the current attacking piece and it will return to its original color.

Alternatively, although you cannot drag or fling the pieces, you can sort of slide your finger from the attacking piece over to the capture piece and lift, without highlighting either piece.

Here are the rules:
1) Each move must result in a capture.
2) There is no Check rule for the King.
3) Capture all but the last attacking piece and you win the board.

Points are awarded depending on which piece you use to capture:

Queen = 1 point
Rook = 2 points
King = 3 points
Bishop = 4 points
Knight = 5 points
Pawn = 6 points

For example, if you capture another piece with the Knight you are awarded 5 points.

Boards will usually have more than one solution. Try to solve the board with the most points for that puzzle.

One approach to these Chess brain game puzzles is to initially solve the board any way you can without regard to score. This will give you a goal upon which to improve.

After subsequent retries you will oftentimes find other solutions which result in higher scores, even if only by 1 or 2 points but sometimes as many as 8 or 10 points. You may retry a board as many times as you wish.

Change the number of pieces with the Population button and choose a static number or Random Population. You may set the sound and backflash On/Off, show the attacking points per piece, select either black or white pieces, choose different board backgrounds, and change orientation between Portrait and Landscape.

Lastly, if you have comments, suggestions, complaints, or otherwise, please email [email protected]