Win the hanging bishop on f5
li-06nTKOpens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 1546 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
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 d1, rook a1 f1, bishop e3 c4, knight f5, pawn a2 b2 f2 g2 h2 c3.
Black: king h8, queen b6, rook a8 f8, bishop c5 c8, knight c6, pawn f6 a7 b7 c7 g7 h7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 16.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 34 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on h8.
It is Black to move on move 16, with 33 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The Black king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
16... Bxf5 17. Bxc5 Qxc5
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to f5 keeps the pressure (+4.5).
- Well found: queen to c5 (+4.6).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Bxc5, then Qxc5 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 16… Bxf5 — bishop to f5 (capture)
- 17. Bxc5 — bishop to c5 (capture)
- Qxc5 — queen to c5 (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 011
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