Pin: queen to a1 (d1)
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The tactical motive
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 2408 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 g1, queen d1, rook e1 c2, bishop g2, knight d2 f3, pawn f2 a3 g3 h3 b4 e4.
Black: king g7, queen b6, rook b8 c8, bishop e6, knight d4 d7, pawn b5 d6 g6 e7 f7 h7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 21.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 34 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 21, with 34 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
21. Qa1 Rxc2 22. Nxd4 Qxd4 23. Qxd4+
Why it works
- Great move! queen to a1 keeps the pressure (+3.8).
- Well found: knight to d4 (+3.9).
- Strong! queen to d4 is the sharp choice (+3.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rxc2, then Nxd4 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 21. Qa1 — queen to a1
- Rxc2 — rook to c2 (capture)
- 22. Nxd4 — knight to d4 (capture)
- Qxd4 — queen to d4 (capture)
- 23. Qxd4+ — queen to d4 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
Trapped piece
The attacked piece has no safe square — it is caught.
Trapping a piece means the attacked piece has no safe square left — it simply perishes. Do not chase it around; build a cage instead: cut off the escape squares with pawns and pieces first, and attack last. The typical victim has wandered deep into your camp or is stuck at the edge of the board, where its mobility is tiny. And always check the way home for your own raiders — or the trapped piece will be yours.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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