Real positions from rated games. Narrow them by motif, difficulty or rating, then solve or print each one.
3485 real-game Quiet move puzzles in this collection
What is a quiet move?
A quiet move wins without check or capture — it simply creates an unstoppable threat. These are the hardest tactics to find because they hide among forcing candidates.
How to spot it
When checks and captures all fall short, look for the move that sets up two threats at once or takes away every escape square before striking.
What this set trains
Quiet-move sets expand your candidate-move list beyond forcing lines — the step that separates intermediate from advanced calculation.
How the solutions work · counted by a rules engine
What a typical quiet move solution looks like
Sample: 12,717 quiet move puzzles (5% of all 254,641).
21.8% need 2 solver moves, 40.6% need 3 solver moves, 21.2% need 4 solver moves, 16.4% need 5 or more solver moves. Median rating: 1979 for the shortest solutions, 2315 for the longest.
36.8% open with a pawn move. The first move captures in 20.3% and gives check in 13.5%; 1.1% end in checkmate, 10.6% involve a sacrifice, 52% have White to move.
20.3%first move captures
13.5%first move gives check
1.1%end in checkmate
10.6%involve a sacrifice
How many moves does the solver need?
2 solver moves
21.8% · median rating 1979
3 solver moves
40.6% · median rating 2090
4 solver moves
21.2% · median rating 2196
5+ solver moves
16.4% · median rating 2315
Which piece plays the key move?
Key move by a pawn
36.8%
Key move by a rook
23.5%
Key move by a queen
11.5%
Key move by a bishop
10%
Key move by the king
10%
Key move by a knight
8.2%
What does the solver win?
Captures nothing along the line
34%
Most valuable capture: pawn
19.9%
Most valuable capture: queen
18.7%
Most valuable capture: rook
16.5%
Most valuable capture: bishop
6.6%
Most valuable capture: knight
4.3%
Material balance along the whole line, counting every capture by both sides (pawn 1, minor piece 3, rook 5, queen 9):
No material gained (mating or positional)
49.8%
Up to 2 pawns’ worth
18.5%
3–4 points (about a minor piece)
14.9%
5–8 points (a rook or more)
11.9%
9 or more points (a queen’s worth)
4.9%
How much is left on the board?
28 or more pieces on the board
0.9%
21–27 pieces
13.8%
13–20 pieces
35.2%
12 pieces or fewer
50.1%
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 12,717 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: h5 (4.8%), g5 (4.1%), h4 (3.9%), a5 (3.6%), f5 (3.6%).
1
1.3
8
1
1.2
1.3
1.1
7
1
1.3
1.3
1.6
2.4
1.9
1.6
6
3.6
2.7
2.7
2.6
3
3.6
4.1
4.8
5
2.9
2.4
2
1.6
2.4
3
3.5
3.9
4
1.1
1.5
1.3
1.1
1.6
1.5
1.8
3
2
1
1.1
1.4
1.5
1.3
1.1
1.4
1
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Counted from the same 12,717-puzzle sample. Squares under 1% are left blank.
In the chess glossary
What the glossary says
Quiet move
A move that does not attack or capture an enemy piece.
Where this page comes from
The text above is adapted from
“Glossary of chess” on Wikipedia,
by its contributors. We kept only the definitions of the terms listed, removed citations, diagrams and navigation templates, and left the wording otherwise unchanged — nothing here was written or rewritten by AI.
The original is published under
CC BY-SA 4.0,
so this section is published under the same licence. You may share and
adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same
licence.
Puzzle positions, ratings and move sequences on this page come from real rated games (CC0 data), not from Wikipedia; theme write-ups and difficulty guides
elsewhere on this site are Chess Puzzle Print's own original work and are not covered by
this licence.
Study positions
The most-solved quiet move puzzles, from each difficulty level. Play each one on the board, then open the answer for the full line.
♔
♟
♚
♙
White to move · rating 1129 · solved 3,406 times
· 3 solver moves to find. The solver captures a pawn.Reveal line
Opponent's last move: Kg4
Solution: h5 → Kf4 → Kxh6 → Kf5 → Kg7
♟
♔
♙
♚
Black to move · rating 1177 · solved 3,353 times
· 5 solver moves to find. The solver captures a pawn.Reveal line
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