Deflection: rook to f1 (f6)
li-05Sv2naming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Difficulty 1520 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
Black 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 e8, rook e1, bishop b3, pawn a2 g2 h2 c3 d4.
Black: king h8, queen f8, rook f6, bishop g5, pawn a6 c6 h6 b7 g7.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 35.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 22 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 h8.
It is Black to move on move 35, with 23 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d.
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
35... Rf1+ 36. Rxf1 Qxe8
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f1 keeps the pressure (+4.7).
- Well found: queen to e8 (+4.8).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rxf1, then Qxe8 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 35… Rf1+ — rook to f1 with check
- 36. Rxf1 — rook to f1 (capture)
- Qxe8 — queen to e8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Deflection
Force the defender away from its duty — then strike what it guarded.
Deflection forces the guard to leave its post: a sacrifice or exchange drags it away from the piece or square it protects. First find the critical defender — the piece whose absence makes the mate or the material win possible. Then find the move it cannot ignore, which is usually a capture. Do not be stingy: if removing the guard wins the queen or mates, the sacrifice pays for itself many times over.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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