Attraction Puzzles: Foundation Level

By the numbers

attraction puzzles at foundation level: the numbers

There are 20,123 attraction puzzles at foundation level, solved 40,516,568 times in total. The median rating is 1124.

Often combined with

Endgame tactics · 11,885Checkmate · 8,034Middlegame tactics · 7,935Sacrifice · 7,459Mate in 2 · 5,476Fork · 5,292Kingside attack · 3,550Mate in 3 · 2,244Deflection · 2,218Exposed king · 1,920

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 292French Defence · 127Caro–Kann Defence · 100Queen's Pawn Game · 89Ruy Lopez · 84Italian Game · 76Indian Defence · 66Scandinavian Defense · 62

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 foundation level (9.9% of all 20,123).

40.1% need 2 solver moves, 53.6% need 3 solver moves, 6% need 4 solver moves. Median rating: 1120 for the shortest solutions, 1140 for the longest.

61.4% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 78.6% and gives check in 85.5%; 39.7% end in checkmate, 55.1% involve a sacrifice, 54.8% 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: h7 (17.3%), f8 (13.5%), g7 (6.6%), g8 (5.9%), e8 (4.5%).

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