Trap the bishop on d3 (e2)
li-06tOYnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Trapped piece: an enemy piece has no safe squares — catch it.
Difficulty 1401 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A trapped piece has no safe square. Spot an enemy piece that has wandered offside or been hemmed in, then play the move that takes away its last escape and wins it — often a quiet pawn push or a covering minor piece.
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 e2 c3, knight f3, pawn a2 b2 f2 g3 h3 c4.
Black: king g8, queen e4, rook a8 f8, bishop c8, knight a6 g6, pawn e5 c6 f6 a7 b7 g7 h7.
13 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 14.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (34 against 35; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 14, with 40 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
14. Bd3 Qxd3 15. Qxd3
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to d3 keeps the pressure (+4.0).
- Well found: queen to d3 (+4.0).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxd3, then Qxd3 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 14. Bd3 — bishop to d3
- Qxd3 — queen to d3 (capture)
- 15. Qxd3 — queen to d3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 010
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