Pin: queen to f6 (e6)
li-06eQxnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 1808 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 h3, queen e6, rook e7, pawn c3 g3 h4 f5.
Black: king h7, queen c5, rook a8, pawn b5 d5 c6 f6 h6 a7 g7.
7 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 37.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (18 against 21; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h3, the black king on h7.
It is White to move on move 37, with 26 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, b, d.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
37. Qxf6 Qxe7 38. Qxe7
Why it works
- Great move! queen to f6 keeps the pressure (+6.1).
- Well found: queen to e7 (+6.3).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxe7, then Qxe7 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 37. Qxf6 — queen to f6 (capture)
- Qxe7 — queen to e7 (capture)
- 38. Qxe7 — queen to e7 (capture)
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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