Trap the king on d7
li-0AJz9Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Trapped piece: an enemy piece has no safe squares — catch it.
Difficulty 2005 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 g2, bishop b7, pawn f2 e3 g3 d4.
Black: king e7, rook a5, pawn e4 d5.
6 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 84.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 7 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g2, the black king on e7.
It is Black to move on move 84, with 17 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, c, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f, g.
The Black king has 8 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
84... Kd7 85. g4 Kc7 86. Kg3 Kxb7
Why it works
- Great move! king to d7 keeps the pressure (+3.8).
- Well found: king to c7 (+4.0).
- Strong! king to b7 is the sharp choice (+5.0).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead g4, then Kc7 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 84… Kd7 — king to d7
- 85. g4 — pawn to g4
- Kc7 — king to c7
- 86. Kg3 — king to g3
- Kxb7 — king to b7 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
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?
King march
In the endgame the king is a fighting piece — march it in.
The king march: in the endgame the king is a fighting piece, and often it is his journey forward that wins. It is time to march when the queens are off and checks hold no danger — the king attacks pawns, escorts the passer, takes squares away. The telltale sign of the theme is several king moves in a row. Plan the full route in advance using the rule of the square, and do not let the enemy king grab the opposition.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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