Attraction Puzzles: Advanced Level

By the numbers

attraction puzzles at advanced level: the numbers

There are 56,457 attraction puzzles at advanced level, solved 101,826,103 times in total. The median rating is 2228.

Often combined with

Middlegame tactics · 37,803Sacrifice · 33,491Endgame tactics · 16,419Fork · 13,697Kingside attack · 12,519Checkmate · 8,243Deflection · 7,713Exposed king · 7,682Pin · 7,030

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 1,634French Defence · 811Queen's Pawn Game · 706Italian Game · 629Caro–Kann Defence · 532Scandinavian Defense · 449Indian Defence · 374Queen's Gambit Declined · 326

Counts computed from the full puzzle set.

How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine

What a typical attraction solution looks like

Sample: 2,000 attraction puzzles at advanced level (3.5% of all 56,457).

8.8% need 2 solver moves, 44% need 3 solver moves, 27.8% need 4 solver moves, 19.4% need 5 or more solver moves. Median rating: 2158 for the shortest solutions, 2378 for the longest.

43.1% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 62.8% and gives check in 70.2%; 14% end in checkmate, 74.6% involve a sacrifice, 56.6% have White to move.

How many moves does the solver need?

Which piece plays the key move?

What does the solver win?

Material balance along the whole line, counting every capture by both sides (pawn 1, minor piece 3, rook 5, queen 9):

How much is left on the board?

How it is counted: every puzzle in the sample is replayed move by move with a chess rules engine. A sacrifice means a piece that is captured on the very next ply and was worth more than what it captured itself (pawn 1, minor piece 3, rook 5, queen 9). Sample of 2,000 puzzles. Percentages are shares of the sample.

Where it happens

Where the key move lands

Where the solver’s first move ends, drawn from their own side (rank 1 is their back rank). Busiest squares: g7 (13.4%), f7 (12.2%), h7 (9.4%), f8 (4%), f6 (3.9%).

Counted from the same 2,000-puzzle sample. Squares under 1% are left blank.