Skewer: queen to h8 (c3)
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The tactical motive
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 943 ShuffleRating — for beginners taking their first steps in Chess960 tactics.
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 g2, queen c3, rook f1 h1, knight d1 e2, pawn a2 b3 g3 c4 d5.
Black: king f8, queen d7, rook b8, bishop g5, knight e4 g4, pawn c5 h5 a6 d6 g6 b7 f7.
11 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 29.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 30 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g2, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 29, with 42 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: f, h.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
29. Qh8+ Ke7 30. Qxb8
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h8 keeps the pressure (+3.1).
- Well found: queen to b8 (+3.4).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Ke7, then Qxb8 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 29. Qh8+ — queen to h8 with check
- Ke7 — king to e7
- 30. Qxb8 — queen to b8 (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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 005
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