Pin: pawn to d8
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 1396 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
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 h3, queen c7, bishop b5, pawn f2 g3 c4 h4 d7.
Black: king g7, queen d4, rook f7, pawn e4 c5 h5 b6 g6.
8 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 53.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (17 against 19; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h3, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 53, with 23 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, e.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
53. d8=Q Rxc7 54. Qxc7+
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to d8 keeps the pressure (+5.2).
- Well found: queen to c7 (+5.2).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rxc7, then Qxc7+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 53. d8=Q — pawn to d8
- Rxc7 — rook to c7 (capture)
- 54. Qxc7+ — queen to c7 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
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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