Pin: queen to c7
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 2023 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
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 a3, queen c2, rook d1, pawn b2.
Black: king h2, queen h5, rook g2, pawn g6.
4 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 57.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 15 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on a3, the black king on h2.
It is White to move on move 57, with 38 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 1 pawns, Black 1. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c, d, e, f, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: g.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
57. Qc7+ Rg3+ 58. Rd3 Qa5+ 59. Qxa5
Why it works
- Great move! queen to c7 keeps the pressure (+4.4).
- Well found: rook to d3 (+5.0).
- Strong! queen to a5 is the sharp choice (+5.2).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rg3+, then Rd3 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 57. Qc7+ — queen to c7 with check
- Rg3+ — rook to g3 with check
- 58. Rd3 — rook to d3
- Qa5+ — queen to a5 with check
- 59. Qxa5 — queen to a5 (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.
Queen endgame
Queens on an open board — precision above all.
Queen endgames are treacherous: the queen reaches everywhere, and one slip turns a win into perpetual check. The signs are few pawns, exposed kings, and checks hanging in the air. Tuck your king away early, and use your own checks to bring the queen closer or push your passer with tempo. The typical mistake is grabbing pawns while leaving your king exposed to endless checks.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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