Win the hanging queen on a1
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The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 1686 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A hanging piece is one that is attacked and not defended, or defended too few times. Count attackers against defenders on each enemy unit; where attackers win, take it — often with an in-between move or a check to gain the extra tempo.
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 e2, rook a1 d5, bishop h6, knight a8, pawn a2 f2 g2 h3 e4.
Black: king d7, queen c3, rook h8, knight c5 c6, pawn e5 d6 g6 a7 b7 e7 h7.
11 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 18.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (30 against 27; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on d7.
It is Black to move on move 18, with 45 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f.
The Black king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
18... Qxa1+ 19. Rd1 Qc3
Why it works
- Great move! queen to a1 keeps the pressure (+3.9).
- Well found: queen to c3 (+3.7).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rd1, then Qc3 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 18… Qxa1+ — queen to a1 (capture) with check
- 19. Rd1 — rook to d1
- Qc3 — queen to c3
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 013
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