Skewer: rook to f7 (e7)
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The tactical motive
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 1620 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 c1, rook f1 e7, pawn c2 a5 d5 b6.
Black: king g7, rook d4 h8, pawn c3 a6 d6 g6 b7 f7.
7 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 39.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (14 against 16; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 39, with 22 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: f, g.
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
39. Rexf7+ Kh6 40. Rh1+ Kg5 41. Rxh8
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f7 keeps the pressure (+5.3).
- Well found: rook to h1 (+5.7).
- Strong! rook to h8 is the sharp choice (+5.7).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kh6, then Rh1+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 39. Rexf7+ — rook to f7 (capture) with check
- Kh6 — king to h6
- 40. Rh1+ — rook to h1 with check
- Kg5 — king to g5
- 41. Rxh8 — rook to h8 (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.
Rook endgame
The most common endgame — activity decides everything.
The rook endgame is the most common of all: rooks and pawns on the board. Its first law is activity — a rook behind a passed pawn beats a rook passively babysitting one. The sign of a correct plan is that your rook is attacking something, not guarding something. The typical error is locking your rook into defense: it is often better to give up a pawn and keep your rook and king active.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 012
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