Trap the bishop on c1
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The tactical motive
Trapped piece: an enemy piece has no safe squares — catch it.
Difficulty 2122 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 f5, rook a1 f1, bishop c1, knight c3, pawn a2 b2 c2 f2 g2 d3 g4.
Black: king g8, queen d8, rook c8 e8, bishop g5 c6, pawn e5 a7 f7 g7 h7.
13 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 17.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (32 against 30; 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 g8.
It is Black to move on move 17, with 42 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 5. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for Black: b, c, d.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
17... Bxc1 18. Raxc1 g6 19. Qxc8 Qxc8
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to c1 keeps the pressure (+4.5).
- Well found: pawn to g6 (+4.6).
- Strong! queen to c8 is the sharp choice (+4.5).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Raxc1, then g6 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 17… Bxc1 — bishop to c1 (capture)
- 18. Raxc1 — rook to c1 (capture)
- g6 — pawn to g6
- 19. Qxc8 — queen to c8 (capture)
- Qxc8 — queen to c8 (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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 015
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