Deflection: pawn to e2
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Save the piece: one of your pieces is attacked — find the best way to rescue it.
Difficulty 1471 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
Deflection drags a defender away from its duty. Identify the enemy piece that guards a key square or mate, then force it to move — with a check, a capture or a threat it must answer — and strike where it no longer defends.
Here the task is defensive: one of your pieces is under attack and must be rescued without losing more. Look for a move that saves it with tempo — a counter-check, an equal counter-attack or an interposition — rather than a passive retreat.
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 d1, rook f8, bishop c5, pawn a3 h4.
Black: king f1, bishop f4, pawn e3 a6 g6 h6.
5 white and 6 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 46.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (10 against 7; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d1, the black king on f1.
It is Black to move on move 46, with 7 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, c, d, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
46... e2+ 47. Kc2 e1=Q 48. Rxf4+ Kg2
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to e2 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- Well found: pawn to e1 (+3.2).
- Strong! king to g2 is the sharp choice (+3.5).
- You win decisive material (+3.5).
- If instead Kc2, then e1=Q and you win the pawn.
Move by move
- 46… e2+ — pawn to e2 with check
- 47. Kc2 — king to c2
- e1=Q — pawn to e1
- 48. Rxf4+ — rook to f4 (capture) with check
- Kg2 — king to g2
Types in this puzzle
Promotion
The pawn reaches the last rank and becomes a queen — decisively.
Promotion turns a pawn on the last rank into a queen and rewrites the evaluation on the spot. In tactics the passer rarely walks in for free — usually a sacrifice clears its path. Count the tempi: how many moves does the pawn need, and can the defender stop it in time? And watch the promotion square itself — it must be out of enemy reach or won by force in your combination.
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.
Passed pawn
Nothing can stop the passer — escort it to the last rank.
A passed pawn has no enemy pawns in front of it or on the neighboring files: only pieces can stop it. Check who can blockade the pawn or catch it with the king — if nobody can, the pawn is worth a whole piece. Push the passer with your pieces supporting it, and put your rook behind it. The beginner's mistake is shoving the pawn forward unprotected, straight into a capture.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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