Trap the pawn on c5
li-07MXxOpens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Trapped piece: an enemy piece has no safe squares — catch it.
Difficulty 1801 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black 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 b1, queen d4, rook d1 h1, bishop f1 e3, knight a7, pawn a2 b2 c2 f2 h2 f3 e4.
Black: king b8, queen e7, rook d8 h8, bishop e6 g7, knight f6, pawn a6 d6 g6 b7 c7 f7 h7.
14 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 14.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 35 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on b1, the black king on b8.
It is Black to move on move 14, with 39 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for Black: e.
The Black king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
14... c5 15. Nc6+ bxc6
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to c5 keeps the pressure (+3.8).
- Well found: pawn to c6 (+3.6).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Nc6+, then bxc6 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 14… c5 — pawn to c5
- 15. Nc6+ — knight to c6 with check
- bxc6 — pawn to c6 (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 013
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads