Deflection Puzzles: Foundation Level

By the numbers

deflection puzzles at foundation level: the numbers

There are 61,220 deflection puzzles at foundation level, solved 81,655,365 times in total. The median rating is 1081.

Often combined with

Endgame tactics · 43,645Checkmate · 21,431Mate in 2 · 17,277Middlegame tactics · 16,275Rook endgame tactics · 7,690Kingside attack · 4,688Discovered attack · 4,127Mate in 3 · 3,830Skewer · 3,466

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 817Italian Game · 413Caro–Kann Defence · 341Queen's Pawn Game · 334French Defence · 331Scandinavian Defense · 267Queen's Gambit Declined · 229Ruy Lopez · 172

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 foundation level (3.3% of all 61,220).

74.2% need 2 solver moves, 23.8% need 3 solver moves, 1.8% need 4 solver moves. Median rating: 1067 for the shortest solutions, 1102 for the longest.

33.4% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 20.4% and gives check in 97.1%; 34.7% end in checkmate, 27.8% involve a sacrifice, 54.2% 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 (7.6%), e8 (7.3%), h7 (6.1%), g5 (5.9%), e7 (5.6%).

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