Opera mate Puzzles: Foundation Level

By the numbers

opera mate puzzles at foundation level: the numbers

There are 43,249 opera mate puzzles at foundation level, solved 25,696,250 times in total. The median rating is 814.

Often combined with

Checkmate · 43,248Endgame tactics · 26,705Mate in 1 · 23,128Mate in 2 · 18,429Middlegame tactics · 15,660Kingside attack · 3,502Sacrifice · 2,763Mate in 3 · 1,599Queenside attack · 1,335Opening tactics · 884

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 713Scandinavian Defense · 333Caro–Kann Defence · 303French Defence · 300Queen's Gambit Declined · 292Italian Game · 273Queen's Pawn Game · 247Scotch Game · 226

Counts computed from the full puzzle set.

How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine

What a typical opera mate solution looks like

Sample: 2,000 opera mate puzzles at foundation level (4.6% of all 43,249).

54.1% need 1 solver move, 42.6% need 2 solver moves, 3.2% need 3 solver moves. Median rating: 776 for the shortest solutions, 907 for the longest.

90.5% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 21.4% and gives check in 100%; 100% end in checkmate, 13.4% involve a sacrifice, 52.4% 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: d8 (18.4%), e8 (16.2%), f8 (14.6%), h8 (8.8%), c8 (5.9%).

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