Pin Puzzles: Challenging Level

By the numbers

pin puzzles at challenging level: the numbers

There are 98,697 pin puzzles at challenging level, solved 277,635,797 times in total. The median rating is 1784.

Often combined with

Middlegame tactics · 62,749Endgame tactics · 32,086Sacrifice · 16,281Checkmate · 14,745Kingside attack · 12,203Mate in 2 · 8,684Attraction · 7,559Fork · 7,164

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 3,365Italian Game · 1,552French Defence · 1,319Caro–Kann Defence · 1,012Queen's Pawn Game · 910Scandinavian Defense · 894Ruy Lopez · 773Scotch Game · 714

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 challenging level (2% of all 98,697).

2.5% need 1 solver move, 47.8% need 2 solver moves, 40.2% need 3 solver moves, 8% need 4 solver moves, 1.4% need 5 or more solver moves. Median rating: 1703 for the shortest solutions, 1849 for the longest.

30.6% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 44% and gives check in 49.2%; 15.6% end in checkmate, 33.4% involve a sacrifice, 52.9% 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 (7.2%), g6 (6.9%), h6 (5.4%), f7 (5.1%), e6 (3.8%).

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