Mate in 4 Puzzles: Challenging Level

By the numbers

mate in 4 puzzles at challenging level: the numbers

There are 9,972 mate in 4 puzzles at challenging level, solved 51,836,177 times in total. The median rating is 1793.

Often combined with

Checkmate · 9,972Middlegame tactics · 5,684Sacrifice · 5,560Endgame tactics · 4,141Attraction · 2,887Kingside attack · 2,065Exposed king · 1,243Deflection · 1,231Fork · 1,161Discovered check · 944

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 102Italian Game · 81French Defence · 71Queen's Pawn Game · 63Caro–Kann Defence · 48Scandinavian Defense · 46Ruy Lopez · 33Scotch Game · 30

Counts computed from the full puzzle set.

How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine

What a typical mate in 4 solution looks like

Sample: 2,000 mate in 4 puzzles at challenging level (20.1% of all 9,972).

100% need 4 solver moves. Median rating: 1793 for the shortest solutions, 1793 for the longest.

37.4% open with a queen move. The first move captures in 38.4% and gives check in 94.8%; 100% end in checkmate, 62.9% involve a sacrifice, 53.2% 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 (12.2%), h7 (11.2%), g7 (7.5%), h8 (6.2%), g6 (4.8%).

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