Mate in 2 Puzzles: Advanced Level

By the numbers

mate in 2 puzzles at advanced level: the numbers

There are 13,040 mate in 2 puzzles at advanced level, solved 39,054,061 times in total. The median rating is 2089.

Often combined with

Checkmate · 13,040Middlegame tactics · 6,984Endgame tactics · 5,755Sacrifice · 3,597Discovered check · 1,501Kingside attack · 1,406Attraction · 958Discovered attack · 938Double check · 932Pin · 845

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 221Italian Game · 128French Defence · 98Caro–Kann Defence · 94Scandinavian Defense · 94Queen's Pawn Game · 85Queen's Gambit Declined · 62King's Gambit · 58

Counts computed from the full puzzle set.

How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine

What a typical mate in 2 solution looks like

Sample: 2,000 mate in 2 puzzles at advanced level (15.3% of all 13,040).

100% need 2 solver moves. Median rating: 2087 for the shortest solutions, 2087 for the longest.

39% open with a queen move. The first move captures in 21.4% and gives check in 93.7%; 100% end in checkmate, 27.6% involve a sacrifice, 55.1% 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: h6 (6.2%), f6 (5.5%), f7 (5.2%), g6 (4.7%), h7 (3.9%).

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