Skewer: rook to h4 (h8)
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The tactical motive
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 1060 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 e1, rook h8.
Black: king d4, rook a4, pawn e3.
2 white and 3 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 58.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (5 against 6; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e1, the black king on d4.
It is White to move on move 58, with 17 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 0 pawns, Black 1. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, c, d, f, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
58. Rh4+ Kc3 59. Rxa4
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h4 keeps the pressure (+4.8).
- Well found: rook to a4 (+5.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kc3, then Rxa4 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 58. Rh4+ — rook to h4 with check
- Kc3 — king to c3
- 59. Rxa4 — rook to a4 (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.
Rook endgame
The most common endgame — activity decides everything.
The rook endgame is the most common of all: rooks and pawns on the board. Its first law is activity — a rook behind a passed pawn beats a rook passively babysitting one. The sign of a correct plan is that your rook is attacking something, not guarding something. The typical error is locking your rook into defense: it is often better to give up a pawn and keep your rook and king active.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 007
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