Pin: queen to f1
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 1615 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 e4, rook f1 a7, bishop e3, pawn f2 g2 h3 d5.
Black: king g8, queen a6, rook f8, bishop g7, knight f5, pawn e5 h5 d6 h7.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (26 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 24, with 34 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f, g.
The Black king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
24... Qxf1+ 25. Kxf1 Ng3+ 26. Ke1 Nxe4
Why it works
- Great move! queen to f1 keeps the pressure (+3.9).
- Well found: knight to g3 (+3.9).
- Strong! knight to e4 is the sharp choice (+4.0).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kxf1, then Ng3+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 24… Qxf1+ — queen to f1 (capture) with check
- 25. Kxf1 — king to f1 (capture)
- Ng3+ — knight to g3 with check
- 26. Ke1 — king to e1
- Nxe4 — knight to e4 (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.
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.
Simplification
Trade the heavy pieces and steer into a won endgame.
Simplification is how you convert an advantage: by trading queens and rooks you extinguish the counterplay and steer the game into a won endgame. The rule is simple — the side with extra material trades pieces but keeps pawns. Look for exchanges once the material is already won and your opponent is still rattling threats. The mistake is avoiding the queen trade and letting him muddy the water forever.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 012
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