Discovered attack: rook to e4
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1259 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
Black 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 c1, queen c4, rook d1 h1, bishop g2, knight e4, pawn a2 b2 c2 f3 g6.
Black: king h8, queen g5, rook f4 a8, bishop g7, knight e8, pawn c5 b6 d6 a7 h7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 23.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 30 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on c1, the black king on h8.
It is Black to move on move 23, with 39 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): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f, g.
The Black king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
23... Rxe4+ 24. f4 Qxf4+ 25. Kb1 Rxc4
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e4 keeps the pressure (+5.0).
- Well found: queen to f4 (+5.0).
- Strong! rook to c4 is the sharp choice (+5.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead f4, then Qxf4+ and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 23… Rxe4+ — rook to e4 (capture) with check
- 24. f4 — pawn to f4
- Qxf4+ — queen to f4 (capture) with check
- 25. Kb1 — king to b1
- Rxc4 — rook to c4 (capture)
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.
Mate defense
Mate is threatened — parry it and stay on top.
Mate defense: your opponent is one move from mating you — but it is your turn, and that changes everything. Find the defense that kills the mating threat while keeping your advantage: often a check or a counter-threat that leaves no time for the mate. First name the exact square where the mate would land — otherwise you are defending blind. The mistake is playing a "defensive" move that does not actually remove the threat.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 009
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