Sacrifice Puzzles: Foundation Level

By the numbers

sacrifice puzzles at foundation level: the numbers

There are 85,774 sacrifice puzzles at foundation level, solved 98,416,139 times in total. The median rating is 1010.

Often combined with

Checkmate · 77,710Mate in 2 · 46,174Middlegame tactics · 42,474Endgame tactics · 42,416Back-rank mate · 39,449Mate in 3 · 30,588Kingside attack · 16,337Attraction · 7,459Pillsbury's mate · 5,230Clearance · 4,262

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 1,269French Defence · 617Italian Game · 584Caro–Kann Defence · 510Scandinavian Defense · 482Queen's Pawn Game · 463Scotch Game · 396Ruy Lopez · 337

Counts computed from the full puzzle set.

How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine

What a typical sacrifice solution looks like

Sample: 2,000 sacrifice puzzles at foundation level (2.3% of all 85,774).

55.6% need 2 solver moves, 42.5% need 3 solver moves, 1.8% need 4 solver moves. Median rating: 970 for the shortest solutions, 1085 for the longest.

63.5% open with a queen move. The first move captures in 41.4% and gives check in 96.7%; 90.8% end in checkmate, 97.4% involve a sacrifice, 50.8% 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: f7 (21.7%), e8 (13.5%), d8 (9.3%), f8 (8.7%), h6 (5.6%).

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