Pin: pawn to d6
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 1703 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 h1, queen b5, rook f1 c8, bishop c3, knight d2, pawn c2 e4 c5.
Black: king e7, queen h7, rook d7 h8, bishop d6, knight e5 g8, pawn h2 g3 h3 f6.
9 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 30.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (28 against 32; 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 e7.
It is White to move on move 30, with 46 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: f, g, h.
The White king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
30. cxd6+ Kf7 31. Bxe5
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to d6 keeps the pressure (+2.8).
- Well found: bishop to e5 (+3.1).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Kf7, then Bxe5 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 30. cxd6+ — pawn to d6 (capture) with check
- Kf7 — king to f7
- 31. Bxe5 — bishop to e5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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