Pin: knight to f3
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 997 ShuffleRating — for beginners taking their first steps in Chess960 tactics.
Black 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 g1, queen d4, rook a1 f1, knight e2, pawn a2 f2 g2 h3 b4 c4 d5.
Black: king c8, queen g6, rook d8 h8, knight e5, pawn e4 f5 a7 b7 c7 g7 h7.
12 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 17.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 29 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on c8.
It is Black to move on move 17, with 42 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 Black: d.
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
17... Nf3+ 18. Kh1 Nxd4
Why it works
- Great move! knight to f3 keeps the pressure (+5.5).
- Well found: knight to d4 (+5.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kh1, then Nxd4 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 17… Nf3+ — knight to f3 with check
- 18. Kh1 — king to h1
- Nxd4 — knight to d4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 006
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