Skewer: bishop to g7
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The tactical motive
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 1366 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 f2, queen h4, rook a1 h1, bishop h6, pawn b2 g2 a3 c3 f3 e4 d5.
Black: king f8, queen f7, rook e7 b8, bishop d7 g7, pawn b3 a4 b5 e5 d6.
12 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 40.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (29 against 30; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f2, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 40, with 40 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): h — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 6 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
40. Bxg7+ Qxg7 41. Qh8+ Kf7 42. Qxb8
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to g7 keeps the pressure (+5.4).
- Well found: queen to h8 (+5.3).
- Strong! queen to b8 is the sharp choice (+5.2).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qxg7, then Qh8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 40. Bxg7+ — bishop to g7 (capture) with check
- Qxg7 — queen to g7 (capture)
- 41. Qh8+ — queen to h8 with check
- Kf7 — king to f7
- 42. Qxb8 — queen to b8 (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.
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.
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 010
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