One of the reasons I enjoy chess is that I like solving problems. Annoyingly the kind of problems you have to solve while playing chess are quite difficult, and the marking scheme is quite harsh (1,0.5 or 0 and nothing for spelling your name right on the scoresheet).
Problem solving competitions are a little more nuanced, and having participated in one recently, have an interest in trying it again.
But the interest in solving problems is also what drew me into computer programming quite a long time ago (I'm pretty sure the first computer I programmed was back in 1978 as an 11 year old). Since then I have programmed because I have to, but also because I want to. As part of the 'want to' side of programming I have come across a few websites that offer programming challengers. The Project Euler site is one I have used in the past (100 or so problems there), while I recently discovered www.checkio.org
As with a lot of these sites you earn points and achievements for solving problems. The topics covered are quite broad, but there are some chess related puzzles there. Part of the idea is that small solutions can be combined to make bigger solutions, but I am not sure a full chess engine task is hidden away at the end.
The other cool thing is that the solutions are in Python (the language of champions), so if you want to either learn or brush up, this is a place to visit.
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Good to see I'm not the only Eulerian (175 solved so far, all in Python o' course; currently chewing on #167). Thanks for the link to CheckIO. You might want to have a look at Rosalind (http://rosalind.info/problems/list-view/) too, although it's not nearly as actively maintained as Euler.
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