Pin: rook to d5 (d1)
li-05QPwnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 2369 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
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 h6, rook a1 d1, bishop b2 c2, knight g3, pawn f2 g2 h2 a3 c5 e5.
Black: king g8, queen b7, rook a8 d8, bishop e7, knight d5 c6, pawn b4 b5 e6 g6 f7 h7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 34 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 24, with 47 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): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b.
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
24. Rxd5 Bf8 25. Rxd8
Why it works
- Great move! rook to d5 keeps the pressure (+3.8).
- Well found: rook to d8 (+3.5).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Bf8, then Rxd8 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 24. Rxd5 — rook to d5 (capture)
- Bf8 — bishop to f8
- 25. Rxd8 — rook to d8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Rook fork
The rook attacks two targets along rank and file at the same time.
A rook fork attacks two targets from one square — one along the file, the other along the rank. Look for enemy pieces standing at a right angle to each other, both visible from a single safe square. This is bread and butter in endgames, where a rook check picks up loose pieces and pawns along the way. Test every rook check you have: does it also hit something valuable on the other line?
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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