Skewer Puzzles: Developing Level

By the numbers

skewer puzzles at developing level: the numbers

There are 35,709 skewer puzzles at developing level, solved 127,599,545 times in total. The median rating is 1386.

Often combined with

Endgame tactics · 26,073Middlegame tactics · 8,993Rook endgame tactics · 4,599Exposed king · 3,808Deflection · 2,625Queen endgame tactics · 1,981Sacrifice · 1,843Attraction · 1,832

Which openings produce them?

Sicilian Defence · 543French Defence · 295Queen's Pawn Game · 291Caro–Kann Defence · 234Italian Game · 214Queen's Gambit Declined · 143Scandinavian Defense · 130English Opening · 119

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 developing level (5.6% of all 35,709).

51.6% need 2 solver moves, 39.8% need 3 solver moves, 7.2% need 4 solver moves, 1.4% need 5 or more solver moves. Median rating: 1355 for the shortest solutions, 1435 for the longest.

46% open with a rook move. The first move captures in 21.1% and gives check in 76.4%; 0.1% end in checkmate, 6.2% involve a sacrifice, 50% 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 (6.5%), h7 (4.3%), a8 (3.8%), g5 (3.5%), g4 (2.8%).

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