Win the hanging queen on h1
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The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 1916 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 c1, queen h4, rook h1, bishop d3 a5, knight f7, pawn b2 c2 h2 a3 g4.
Black: king g8, queen e4, rook a8, knight b6, pawn b5 e5 a6 c7 g7 h7.
11 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 28.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 5 points of material (28 against 23; 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 g8.
It is Black to move on move 28, with 38 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
White 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
28... Qxh1+ 29. Be1 Kxf7
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h1 keeps the pressure (+1.4).
- Well found: king to f7 (+2.3).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Be1, then Kxf7 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 28… Qxh1+ — queen to h1 (capture) with check
- 29. Be1 — bishop to e1
- Kxf7 — king to f7 (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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 014
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