Trap the bishop on e8 (d7)
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The tactical motive
Trapped piece: an enemy piece has no safe squares — catch it.
Difficulty 1986 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 g1, queen f7, rook e1 f1, bishop d2, pawn a2 b2 c2 g2 h2 e5 f5.
Black: king d8, rook c7 h8, bishop d7 f8, knight c6, pawn d4 a5 d5 b6 e6 h6 g7.
12 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (29 against 26; 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 d8.
It is Black to move on move 20, with 25 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: c, f.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
20... Be8 21. Qxe6 Bf7 22. Qxf7 Rxf7
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to e8 keeps the pressure (+2.7).
- Well found: bishop to f7 (+2.6).
- Strong! rook to f7 is the sharp choice (+2.8).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxe6, then Bf7 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 20… Be8 — bishop to e8
- 21. Qxe6 — queen to e6 (capture)
- Bf7 — bishop to f7
- 22. Qxf7 — queen to f7 (capture)
- Rxf7 — rook to f7 (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.
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?
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 014
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