Deflection: pawn to b2
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Difficulty 1385 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.
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 h5, rook g7, pawn f2 h7.
Black: king c4, rook h8, pawn b3 c6.
4 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 50.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 7 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on h5, the black king on c4.
It is Black to move on move 50, with 17 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, d, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f, h.
The Black king has 7 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
50... b2 51. Rb7 Rxh7+ 52. Rxh7 b1=Q
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to b2 keeps the pressure (+4.9).
- Well found: rook to h7 (+5.3).
- Strong! pawn to b1 is the sharp choice (+5.3).
- You win a piece — the pawn.
- If instead Rb7, then Rxh7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 50… b2 — pawn to b2
- 51. Rb7 — rook to b7
- Rxh7+ — rook to h7 (capture) with check
- 52. Rxh7 — rook to h7 (capture)
- b1=Q — pawn to b1
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.
Promotion race
Both sides push passers — win the race by a tempo.
A promotion race is a sprint between two passed pawns: both sides push toward the last rank, and victory goes to whoever queens first or queens with check. You will recognize it when both players have far-advanced passers that neither king can catch. Count the tempi literally, move by move, all the way to promotion. The classic mistake is spending a tempo on a "useful" move — in a race, almost any non-pawn move loses.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 010
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