Discovered attack: knight to g3 (e2)
li-05lSgnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 2078 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A discovered attack fires when one piece steps aside and unmasks the piece behind it. Look for your own units that block a rook, bishop or queen: moving the front piece — ideally with a threat of its own — springs two attacks in one move.
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 h1, queen e4, rook f1, bishop g1, knight f3 g5, pawn b2 c2 h2 b3 g4.
Black: king d7, queen f4, rook h8, bishop f8, knight e2, pawn c6 h6 b7 g7.
11 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 4 points of material (28 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h1, the black king on d7.
It is Black to move on move 27, with 38 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, d, e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
27... Ng3+ 28. hxg3 hxg5+ 29. Qh7 Rxh7+
Why it works
- Great move! knight to g3 keeps the pressure (+4.4).
- Well found: pawn to g5 (+5.1).
- Strong! rook to h7 is the sharp choice (+5.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead hxg3, then hxg5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 27… Ng3+ — knight to g3 with check
- 28. hxg3 — pawn to g3 (capture)
- hxg5+ — pawn to g5 (capture) with check
- 29. Qh7 — queen to h7
- Rxh7+ — rook to h7 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
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.
Discovered check
The moving piece opens a check — and is free to grab anything meanwhile.
With a discovered check the moving piece unmasks a check from the piece standing behind it. While the king deals with the check, the piece that moved grabs whatever it likes, free of charge. Look for your long-range piece on a line with the enemy king, with exactly one of your own pieces in between. The rule: among all the ways to step aside, pick the one that captures or attacks the most expensive loot.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 015
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