Deflection: rook to e8
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Difficulty 1065 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
Deflection drags a defender away from its duty. Identify the enemy piece that guards a key square or mate, then force it to move — with a check, a capture or a threat it must answer — and strike where it no longer defends.
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 e2, rook g4, knight d3, pawn f2 f5.
Black: king c3, rook h8, bishop d6, pawn d5.
5 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 67.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (10 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 e2, the black king on c3.
It is Black to move on move 67, with 28 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 1. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, c, e, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f.
The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
67... Re8+ 68. Kf3 Kxd3
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e8 keeps the pressure (+3.9).
- Well found: king to d3 (+4.0).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Kf3, then Kxd3 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 67… Re8+ — rook to e8 with check
- 68. Kf3 — king to f3
- Kxd3 — king to d3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 007
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