Pin Puzzles: Advanced Level

By the numbers

pin puzzles at advanced level: the numbers

There are 95,981 pin puzzles at advanced level, solved 113,247,406 times in total. The median rating is 2263.

Often combined with

Middlegame tactics · 64,844Endgame tactics · 28,418Sacrifice · 17,350Kingside attack · 9,198Defensive move · 8,544Fork · 8,353Exposed king · 7,414Attraction · 7,030

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 2,648Italian Game · 1,262French Defence · 1,091Caro–Kann Defence · 890Scandinavian Defense · 768Queen's Pawn Game · 702Ruy Lopez · 541Scotch Game · 530

Counts computed from the full puzzle set.

How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine

What a typical pin solution looks like

Sample: 2,000 pin puzzles at advanced level (2.1% of all 95,981).

24.4% need 2 solver moves, 45.4% need 3 solver moves, 18.6% need 4 solver moves, 11.6% need 5 or more solver moves. Median rating: 2189 for the shortest solutions, 2505 for the longest.

29.2% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 37.6% and gives check in 39.4%; 2.4% end in checkmate, 33.8% involve a sacrifice, 56.8% 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 (7.4%), e6 (4.7%), h6 (4.5%), f7 (4.4%), g6 (4.2%).

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