Deflection: queen to c8
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Difficulty 1095 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 g1, queen c1, bishop f3 g5, knight e2, pawn a2 b2 f2 g2 h2 e4.
Black: king g8, queen b6, bishop g7, knight e5 f6, pawn a4 d6 g6 b7 f7 h7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 21.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 24 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 White to move on move 21, with 36 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
21. Qc8+ Bf8 22. Bxf6
Why it works
- Great move! queen to c8 keeps the pressure (+3.9).
- Well found: bishop to f6 (+4.1).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Bf8, then Bxf6 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 21. Qc8+ — queen to c8 with check
- Bf8 — bishop to f8
- 22. Bxf6 — bishop to f6 (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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 007
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