Discovered attack: pawn to e3 (f2)
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 2279 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White 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 g1, queen c2, rook d1 f1, bishop d3, pawn b2 f2 g2 h2 a3 c4 e5.
Black: king f7, queen d8, rook a8 e8, bishop b7, knight e3 a6, pawn c5 b6 e6 h6 a7 g7.
12 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 17.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (29 against 34; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on f7.
It is White to move on move 17, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
17. fxe3+ Kg8 18. Bh7+ Kh8 19. Rxd8
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to e3 keeps the pressure (+4.8).
- Well found: bishop to h7 (+5.1).
- Strong! rook to d8 is the sharp choice (+5.2).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kg8, then Bh7+ and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 17. fxe3+ — pawn to e3 (capture) with check
- Kg8 — king to g8
- 18. Bh7+ — bishop to h7 with check
- Kh8 — king to h8
- 19. Rxd8 — rook to d8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Rook fork
The rook attacks two targets along rank and file at the same time.
A rook fork attacks two targets from one square — one along the file, the other along the rank. Look for enemy pieces standing at a right angle to each other, both visible from a single safe square. This is bread and butter in endgames, where a rook check picks up loose pieces and pawns along the way. Test every rook check you have: does it also hit something valuable on the other line?
Discovered check
The moving piece opens a check — and is free to grab anything meanwhile.
With a discovered check the moving piece unmasks a check from the piece standing behind it. While the king deals with the check, the piece that moved grabs whatever it likes, free of charge. Look for your long-range piece on a line with the enemy king, with exactly one of your own pieces in between. The rule: among all the ways to step aside, pick the one that captures or attacks the most expensive loot.
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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