Win the hanging king on f5
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The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 955 ShuffleRating — for beginners taking their first steps in Chess960 tactics.
White 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 g5, pawn h6.
Black: king c3, bishop f5, pawn b4 f7.
2 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 58.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (1 against 5; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g5, the black king on c3.
It is White to move on move 58, with 6 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 1 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c, d, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, f.
The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
58. Kxf5 Kc2 59. h7 b3 60. h8=Q
Why it works
- Great move! king to f5 keeps the pressure (+5.2).
- Well found: pawn to h7 (+6.4).
- Strong! pawn to h8 is the sharp choice (+58.3).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Kc2, then h7 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 58. Kxf5 — king to f5 (capture)
- Kc2 — king to c2
- 59. h7 — pawn to h7
- b3 — pawn to b3
- 60. h8=Q — pawn to h8
Types in this puzzle
Promotion
The pawn reaches the last rank and becomes a queen — decisively.
Promotion turns a pawn on the last rank into a queen and rewrites the evaluation on the spot. In tactics the passer rarely walks in for free — usually a sacrifice clears its path. Count the tempi: how many moves does the pawn need, and can the defender stop it in time? And watch the promotion square itself — it must be out of enemy reach or won by force in your combination.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
Promotion race
Both sides push passers — win the race by a tempo.
A promotion race is a sprint between two passed pawns: both sides push toward the last rank, and victory goes to whoever queens first or queens with check. You will recognize it when both players have far-advanced passers that neither king can catch. Count the tempi literally, move by move, all the way to promotion. The classic mistake is spending a tempo on a "useful" move — in a race, almost any non-pawn move loses.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 005
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