Skewer: queen to h1 (c6)
li-04eUNnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 1621 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
Deflection drags a defender away from its duty. Identify the enemy piece that guards a key square or mate, then force it to move — with a check, a capture or a threat it must answer — and strike where it no longer defends.
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 g1, queen c2, rook a1 f1, bishop c1, knight f4, pawn h2 c3 g3 d4 g4 e5.
Black: king g8, queen c6, rook f8, bishop b7 e7, pawn c4 b5 e6 f7 h7.
12 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 6 points of material (31 against 25; 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 g8.
It is Black to move on move 22, with 36 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d, g.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22... Qh1+ 23. Kf2 Qxh2+ 24. Ke1 Qxc2
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h1 keeps the pressure (+5.6).
- Well found: queen to h2 (+5.9).
- Strong! queen to c2 is the sharp choice (+5.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kf2, then Qxh2+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 22… Qh1+ — queen to h1 with check
- 23. Kf2 — king to f2
- Qxh2+ — queen to h2 (capture) with check
- 24. Ke1 — king to e1
- Qxc2 — queen to c2 (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.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 012
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads