Discovered attack: queen to c4
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1826 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black 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 b1, queen d2, rook e1 f1, bishop h3, knight c4, pawn a2 b2 c2 h2 d3 f3 g3 e4.
Black: king b8, queen d4, rook d8 h8, bishop h6, knight g8, pawn f4 c5 e5 g6 a7 b7 h7.
14 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (33 against 32; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on b1, the black king on b8.
It is Black to move on move 20, with 30 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 8 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for Black: d.
The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
20... Qxc4 21. dxc4 Rxd2
Why it works
- Great move! queen to c4 keeps the pressure (+3.7).
- Well found: rook to d2 (+4.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead dxc4, then Rxd2 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 20… Qxc4 — queen to c4 (capture)
- 21. dxc4 — pawn to c4 (capture)
- Rxd2 — rook to d2 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
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.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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