Deflection: rook to e6
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Difficulty 1185 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White 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.
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 c3, rook d6, pawn b4 b5 d5.
Black: king e3, rook d2, pawn b6 a7 g7 h7.
5 white and 6 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 45.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (8 against 9; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c3, the black king on e3.
It is White to move on move 45, with 10 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, g, h.
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
45. Re6+ Kf4 46. Kxd2
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e6 keeps the pressure (+8.5).
- Well found: king to d2 (+10.5).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kf4, then Kxd2 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 45. Re6+ — rook to e6 with check
- Kf4 — king to f4
- 46. Kxd2 — king to d2 (capture)
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.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 007
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