Skewer: rook to h8 (h1)
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The tactical motive
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 1156 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White 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 c1, queen b2, rook h1, bishop c3, knight a2, pawn e3 b4 c5.
Black: king g8, queen e7, rook a7, bishop c7, knight g4, pawn e4 d5 c6 g6.
8 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 37.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (23 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 37, with 33 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, f, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d, g.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
37. Rh8+ Kf7 38. Rh7+ Ke8 39. Rxe7+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h8 keeps the pressure (+4.9).
- Well found: rook to h7 (+5.1).
- Strong! rook to e7 is the sharp choice (+5.3).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kf7, then Rh7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 37. Rh8+ — rook to h8 with check
- Kf7 — king to f7
- 38. Rh7+ — rook to h7 with check
- Ke8 — king to e8
- 39. Rxe7+ — rook to e7 (capture) with check
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.
Check chase
Every move is a check — the king is chased into losing ground.
In a check chase every one of your moves is a check, so the opponent never gets a free second. The king is herded across the board until it loses a piece or walks into a decisive blow. Such lines are the easiest to calculate: each check allows only a handful of replies, so try them all. Make it a habit to start calculating any sharp position with the checks — they are the most forcing moves on the board.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 007
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