Discovered attack: knight to d5
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1124 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 g1, queen d1, rook a1 f1, bishop c4 g5, knight d5, pawn a2 b2 c2 f2 g2 h2 e4.
Black: king g8, queen d8, rook a8 f8, bishop e7 c8, knight f6, pawn e5 a6 d6 b7 f7 g7 h7.
14 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 11.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 35 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 11, with 26 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for Black: c.
The Black king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
11... Nxd5 12. Bxd5 Bxg5
Why it works
- Great move! knight to d5 keeps the pressure (+4.7).
- Well found: bishop to g5 (+4.5).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Bxd5, then Bxg5 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 11… Nxd5 — knight to d5 (capture)
- 12. Bxd5 — bishop to d5 (capture)
- Bxg5 — bishop to g5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 007
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