Win the hanging knight on c2
li-050C0Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Save the piece: one of your pieces is attacked — find the best way to rescue it.
Difficulty 1905 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A hanging piece is one that is attacked and not defended, or defended too few times. Count attackers against defenders on each enemy unit; where attackers win, take it — often with an in-between move or a check to gain the extra tempo.
Here the task is defensive: one of your pieces is under attack and must be rescued without losing more. Look for a move that saves it with tempo — a counter-check, an equal counter-attack or an interposition — rather than a passive retreat.
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 d4, bishop c2, pawn a4 f4 a5.
Black: king e7, knight a3, pawn b6 f6.
5 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 36.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (6 against 5; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d4, the black king on e7.
It is Black to move on move 36, with 14 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, d, e, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a.
The Black king has 7 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
36... Nxc2+ 37. Kc3 Ne3
Why it works
- Great move! knight to c2 keeps the pressure (+2.8).
- Well found: knight to e3 (+3.6).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Kc3, then Ne3 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 36… Nxc2+ — knight to c2 (capture) with check
- 37. Kc3 — king to c3
- Ne3 — knight to e3
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
Minor-piece endgame
Bishops and knights duel — geometry decides.
A minor-piece endgame leaves only bishops and knights with pawns, and geometry decides. The bishop loves an open board and play on both wings; the knight loves fixed pawns and outpost squares. Check which color squares the pawns stand on and where the knight can actually reach in time. Practical tip: against a knight, spread the play across both flanks — short legs cannot cover everything.
Save the piece
The attacked piece can be saved — with profit.
Saving the piece: one of your pieces is attacked, and the job is not to lose it for nothing. There are several tools: retreat with tempo, defend it, block the attack, or create a bigger counter-threat. Before retreating automatically, look for a retreat that attacks something — you save the piece and gain time in one move. The typical mistake is panicking onto the first available square, where the piece gets trapped again.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 014
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