Pin Puzzles: Foundation Level

By the numbers

pin puzzles at foundation level: the numbers

There are 64,421 pin puzzles at foundation level, solved 74,628,471 times in total. The median rating is 1074.

Often combined with

Middlegame tactics · 31,181Endgame tactics · 29,029Checkmate · 14,948Mate in 1 · 7,741Mate in 2 · 6,180Kingside attack · 4,968Opening tactics · 4,211Fork · 2,637

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 2,848Caro–Kann Defence · 1,037French Defence · 960Italian Game · 946Queen's Pawn Game · 859Scandinavian Defense · 825Scotch Game · 626Queen's Gambit Declined · 543

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 foundation level (3.1% of all 64,421).

12.1% need 1 solver move, 75.2% need 2 solver moves, 11.7% need 3 solver moves, 0.9% need 4 solver moves. Median rating: 1016 for the shortest solutions, 1137 for the longest.

31% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 26.6% and gives check in 55%; 23% end in checkmate, 28.8% involve a sacrifice, 49.4% 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: f6 (12.1%), c4 (5.4%), e6 (4.8%), d8 (4.7%), e8 (4.7%).

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