Pin: bishop to f5 (d3)
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 1692 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
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 b1, queen c2, rook c1 g2, bishop d3 h4, pawn a2 f2 h2 b3 e3 d4 f4.
Black: king g8, queen d7, rook c7 a8, bishop f8, knight a6, pawn a3 d5 f5 c6 g6 e7 h7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 32 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on b1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 27, with 34 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: c, g.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
27. Bxf5 e6 28. Bxg6
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to f5 keeps the pressure (+3.9).
- Well found: bishop to g6 (+3.8).
- You reach a winning position (+3.8).
- If instead e6, then Bxg6 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 27. Bxf5 — bishop to f5 (capture)
- e6 — pawn to e6
- 28. Bxg6 — bishop to g6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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