Discovered attack: queen to a1
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1936 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A discovered attack fires when one piece steps aside and unmasks the piece behind it. Look for your own units that block a rook, bishop or queen: moving the front piece — ideally with a threat of its own — springs two attacks in one move.
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 c1, queen h7, rook f1 c2, pawn a2 e3 h3 g4 d5.
Black: king d8, queen c3, rook c8, bishop f6, pawn a5 d6 b7 e7.
9 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 31.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (24 against 21; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on d8.
It is Black to move on move 31, with 36 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): c, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: g, h.
The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
31... Qa1+ 32. Kd2 Rxc2+ 33. Qxc2 Qxf1
Why it works
- Great move! queen to a1 keeps the pressure (+4.8).
- Well found: rook to c2 (+5.0).
- Strong! queen to f1 is the sharp choice (+5.0).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kd2, then Rxc2+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 31… Qa1+ — queen to a1 with check
- 32. Kd2 — king to d2
- Rxc2+ — rook to c2 (capture) with check
- 33. Qxc2 — queen to c2 (capture)
- Qxf1 — queen to f1 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 014
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