Pin: rook to e1 (e2)
li-0Bh2Gnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 1910 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black 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 h1, queen h4, rook e1, knight c5, pawn c3 d4 a5.
Black: king h8, rook e2 b8, bishop g6 e7, pawn c4 a6 f6 h7.
7 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 43.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 20 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on h1, the black king on h8.
It is Black to move on move 43, with 42 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: 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
43... Rxe1+ 44. Qxe1 Rb1 45. Qxb1 Bxb1
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e1 keeps the pressure (+4.8).
- Well found: rook to b1 (+5.3).
- Strong! bishop to b1 is the sharp choice (+5.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxe1, then Rb1 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 43… Rxe1+ — rook to e1 (capture) with check
- 44. Qxe1 — queen to e1 (capture)
- Rb1 — rook to b1
- 45. Qxb1 — queen to b1 (capture)
- Bxb1 — bishop to b1 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 014
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