Skewer: rook to b4
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The tactical motive
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 1103 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 f3, rook b7, bishop e7, pawn f5.
Black: king c4, rook h4, bishop e5, pawn a4 h5 f6.
4 white and 6 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 46.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (9 against 11; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f3, the black king on c4.
It is White to move on move 46, with 21 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 1 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, c, d, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, h.
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
46. Rb4+ Kd5 47. Rxh4
Why it works
- Great move! rook to b4 keeps the pressure (+4.2).
- Well found: rook to h4 (+5.2).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kd5, then Rxh4 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 46. Rb4+ — rook to b4 with check
- Kd5 — king to d5
- 47. Rxh4 — rook to h4 (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.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
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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