Skewer Puzzles: Challenging Level

By the numbers

skewer puzzles at challenging level: the numbers

There are 24,230 skewer puzzles at challenging level, solved 73,282,920 times in total. The median rating is 1768.

Often combined with

Endgame tactics · 15,076Middlegame tactics · 8,649Exposed king · 4,285Sacrifice · 3,357Rook endgame tactics · 2,734Deflection · 2,260Attraction · 1,899Quiet move · 1,147

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 439Queen's Pawn Game · 209Caro–Kann Defence · 205French Defence · 198Italian Game · 119Queen's Gambit Declined · 110Scandinavian Defense · 103English Opening · 89

Counts computed from the full puzzle set.

How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine

What a typical skewer solution looks like

Sample: 2,000 skewer puzzles at challenging level (8.3% of all 24,230).

23.8% need 2 solver moves, 56.4% need 3 solver moves, 15.4% need 4 solver moves, 4.4% need 5 or more solver moves. Median rating: 1732 for the shortest solutions, 1820 for the longest.

44.2% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 30% and gives check in 59.9%; 0.2% end in checkmate, 14.6% involve a sacrifice, 51.4% 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: h8 (8%), f7 (3.9%), g6 (3.3%), h7 (3.2%), f6 (3%).

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