Win the hanging king on f5 (f4)
li-073LSnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 2115 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White 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 f4, rook a8, pawn g6.
Black: king g8, rook f5, bishop f8, pawn a3 b5.
3 white and 5 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 48.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (6 against 10; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f4, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 48, with 5 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle. White are in check right now, so every reply must answer the check.
White keeps 1 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, d, e, f, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, b.
The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
48. Kxf5 b4 49. Kf6 a2 50. Rxa2
Why it works
- Best move. king to f5 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.0).
- Well found: king to f6 (+4.5).
- Strong! rook to a2 is the sharp choice (+4.5).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead b4, then Kf6 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 48. Kxf5 — king to f5 (capture)
- b4 — pawn to b4
- 49. Kf6 — king to f6
- a2 — pawn to a2
- 50. Rxa2 — rook to a2 (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.
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.
King march
In the endgame the king is a fighting piece — march it in.
The king march: in the endgame the king is a fighting piece, and often it is his journey forward that wins. It is time to march when the queens are off and checks hold no danger — the king attacks pawns, escorts the passer, takes squares away. The telltale sign of the theme is several king moves in a row. Plan the full route in advance using the rule of the square, and do not let the enemy king grab the opposition.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 015
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