Discovered attack: rook to h1
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1723 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A discovered attack fires when one piece steps aside and unmasks the piece behind it. Look for your own units that block a rook, bishop or queen: moving the front piece — ideally with a threat of its own — springs two attacks in one move.
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 h2, rook c3 d5, bishop g3, pawn f2 e3 h3 d4.
Black: king g8, rook b1 c8, bishop c6, pawn g7 h7.
8 white and 6 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 34.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (17 against 15; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h2, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 34, with 34 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d, e, f.
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
34... Rh1+ 35. Kxh1 Bxd5+ 36. Kh2 Rxc3
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h1 keeps the pressure (+5.1).
- Well found: bishop to d5 (+5.1).
- Strong! rook to c3 is the sharp choice (+4.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kxh1, then Bxd5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 34… Rh1+ — rook to h1 with check
- 35. Kxh1 — king to h1 (capture)
- Bxd5+ — bishop to d5 (capture) with check
- 36. Kh2 — king to h2
- Rxc3 — rook to c3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
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.
Endgame tactic
Tactics live in the endgame too — strike while material is scarce.
Tactics do not retire when the queens come off: forks, pins and double attacks live on in the endgame. With so little material left, every tactical loss is almost always decisive. The signs are the usual ones — undefended pieces, king and piece on one line, a pawn about to promote. Even in a "technical" ending, scan for a shot before every move, both yours and your opponent's.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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