Discovered check Puzzles: Foundation Level

By the numbers

discovered check puzzles at foundation level: the numbers

There are 20,617 discovered check puzzles at foundation level, solved 27,961,133 times in total. The median rating is 1064.

Often combined with

Discovered attack · 15,061Endgame tactics · 10,863Middlegame tactics · 8,531Checkmate · 7,286Double check · 5,665Mate in 2 · 3,783Advanced pawn · 3,549Fork · 3,387

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 636Italian Game · 259French Defence · 229Caro–Kann Defence · 218Scandinavian Defense · 184Queen's Pawn Game · 171Scotch Game · 141Queen's Gambit Declined · 131

Counts computed from the full puzzle set.

How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine

What a typical discovered check solution looks like

Sample: 2,000 discovered check puzzles at foundation level (9.7% of all 20,617).

12.8% need 1 solver move, 69.9% need 2 solver moves, 17% need 3 solver moves. Median rating: 932 for the shortest solutions, 1135 for the longest.

33.8% open with a pawn move. The first move captures in 24.9% and gives check in 98%; 35.7% end in checkmate, 5% involve a sacrifice, 51.8% 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: f6 (10.1%), d6 (7%), g6 (6.2%), f7 (5.5%), e6 (5.1%).

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