Skewer: king to f3
li-000qPOpens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 2148 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A skewer is a pin reversed — the valuable piece stands in front and, when it moves, the piece behind falls. Line your rook, bishop or queen up against the king or queen and win whatever is hiding behind it.
General method: before you move, list the forcing candidates — every check, every capture, every direct threat — and calculate those first. The solution to a tactic is almost always among them.
Position on the board
White: king f1, rook g1 h7, pawn h4.
Black: king f4, rook c2, bishop e4, pawn f5.
4 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 51.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (11 against 9; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f1, the black king on f4.
It is Black to move on move 51, with 25 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 1 pawns, Black 1. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, c, d, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: h.
The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
51... Kf3 52. Ke1 Rc1+ 53. Kd2 Rxg1
Why it works
- Great move! king to f3 keeps the pressure (+5.7).
- Well found: rook to c1 (+5.9).
- Strong! rook to g1 is the sharp choice (+5.7).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Ke1, then Rc1+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 51… Kf3 — king to f3
- 52. Ke1 — king to e1
- Rc1+ — rook to c1 with check
- 53. Kd2 — king to d2
- Rxg1 — rook to g1 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Skewer
A line attack forces the valuable piece to move, exposing the one behind it.
A skewer is a pin turned inside out: the valuable piece stands in front and something cheaper hides behind it. The big piece must step aside, and you collect the one that was sheltering in its shadow. Scan for the enemy king or queen sharing a file, rank or diagonal with another enemy piece. The deadliest version comes with check — the king moves, the rook behind it dies.
Endgame tactic
Tactics live in the endgame too — strike while material is scarce.
Tactics do not retire when the queens come off: forks, pins and double attacks live on in the endgame. With so little material left, every tactical loss is almost always decisive. The signs are the usual ones — undefended pieces, king and piece on one line, a pawn about to promote. Even in a "technical" ending, scan for a shot before every move, both yours and your opponent's.
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 015
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads