Win the hanging knight on f3
li-0BcqEOpens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 1926 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A hanging piece is one that is attacked and not defended, or defended too few times. Count attackers against defenders on each enemy unit; where attackers win, take it — often with an in-between move or a check to gain the extra tempo.
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, rook b7 d8, bishop f3 a7, pawn f2 h2 g3 a4 c4.
Black: king h7, rook a8, bishop c3, knight e5, pawn c6 f6 g6 g7.
10 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 29.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 6 points of material (21 against 15; 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 h7.
It is Black to move on move 29, with 21 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a, h.
White 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
29... Nxf3+ 30. Kg2 Ne1+ 31. Kf1 Rxd8
Why it works
- Great move! knight to f3 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- Well found: knight to e1 (+3.3).
- Strong! rook to d8 is the sharp choice (+3.3).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kg2, then Ne1+ and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 29… Nxf3+ — knight to f3 (capture) with check
- 30. Kg2 — king to g2
- Ne1+ — knight to e1 with check
- 31. Kf1 — king to f1
- Rxd8 — rook to d8 (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.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 014
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