Trap the bishop on g5 (e3)
li-00YeVnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Trapped piece: an enemy piece has no safe squares — catch it.
Difficulty 1394 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A trapped piece has no safe square. Spot an enemy piece that has wandered offside or been hemmed in, then play the move that takes away its last escape and wins it — often a quiet pawn push or a covering minor piece.
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 d2, rook d1 f1, bishop e2 e3, knight f3, pawn a2 c2 f2 g2 h2 c3 d4.
Black: king g8, queen f6, rook a8 e8, bishop f5 d6, knight c6, pawn e6 a7 b7 c7 f7 g7 h7.
14 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 12.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 35 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 g8.
It is White to move on move 12, with 28 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: b, e.
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
12. Bg5 Qg6 13. Nh4 h6 14. Nxg6
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to g5 keeps the pressure (+4.8).
- Well found: knight to h4 (+5.0).
- Strong! knight to g6 is the sharp choice (+5.2).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qg6, then Nh4 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 12. Bg5 — bishop to g5
- Qg6 — queen to g6
- 13. Nh4 — knight to h4
- h6 — pawn to h6
- 14. Nxg6 — knight to g6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Queen trap
The strongest piece ventures too far — and cannot come back.
A queen trap catches the strongest piece after it ventures too far and finds no way home. The usual story is a queen grabbing a distant pawn — the classic poisoned pawn. The warning signs: the queen has few retreat squares, and enemy minor pieces cut them off one by one, gaining tempo with every move. Before your queen snacks on a pawn in enemy territory, count her escape routes — fewer than two means stay home.
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 010
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads