Deflection Puzzles: Challenging Level

By the numbers

deflection puzzles at challenging level: the numbers

There are 64,515 deflection puzzles at challenging level, solved 184,966,520 times in total. The median rating is 1783.

Often combined with

Endgame tactics · 32,958Middlegame tactics · 30,191Sacrifice · 9,518Checkmate · 8,026Attraction · 7,663Fork · 7,583Kingside attack · 6,845Pin · 6,434

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 1,088French Defence · 605Caro–Kann Defence · 491Italian Game · 459Queen's Pawn Game · 390Scandinavian Defense · 320Queen's Gambit Declined · 304Ruy Lopez · 239

Counts computed from the full puzzle set.

How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine

What a typical deflection solution looks like

Sample: 2,000 deflection puzzles at challenging level (3.1% of all 64,515).

34.6% need 2 solver moves, 46.6% need 3 solver moves, 14.8% need 4 solver moves, 4% need 5 or more solver moves. Median rating: 1764 for the shortest solutions, 1818 for the longest.

33.7% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 32.2% and gives check in 78%; 12.8% end in checkmate, 49% involve a sacrifice, 53.3% 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: f7 (6.5%), f6 (4.9%), h6 (4.9%), e6 (4.3%), e8 (4.2%).

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