Discovered attack: pawn to e6
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1794 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A discovered attack fires when one piece steps aside and unmasks the piece behind it. Look for your own units that block a rook, bishop or queen: moving the front piece — ideally with a threat of its own — springs two attacks in one move.
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 g5, bishop f1, pawn g2 h2 c3 e3 d4 e5.
Black: king f7, queen a5, rook f8, bishop b3, pawn c4.
9 white and 5 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 38.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 18 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 f7.
It is White to move on move 38, with 25 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 1. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
38. e6+ Kxe6 39. Qxa5
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to e6 keeps the pressure (+7.0).
- Well found: queen to a5 (+7.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kxe6, then Qxa5 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 38. e6+ — pawn to e6 with check
- Kxe6 — king to e6 (capture)
- 39. Qxa5 — queen to a5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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